


Treasure Chest

by Hermionechan90



Category: Eyeshield 21, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto, One Piece, Temeraire - Naomi Novik, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Walking Dead (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-02 16:32:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 83,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4066858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermionechan90/pseuds/Hermionechan90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few ideas of mine - feel free to use them. Now changed to include the story lines and alone standing scenes.<br/>These are mostly very rough drafts without proper grammar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Helen Lilian Potter decides to use the train in Kings Cross after Voldemort hit her with the killing curse, against the vehement protests of Dumbledore - while trying to stop her and send her back to earth, Dumbledores curse hits Helen and she is thrown of the platform and into the white fog. She awakes in the body of Lady Helen Lilian Malfoy, her counterpart in this world - alternate Helen had been pressured into marrying Draco Malfoy at 16 shortly after her parents and godfather died. Now at 18 the alternate Helen had been turned into a meek and broken trophy wife. She died during child birth, giving life to triplet girls. Helen, now a new mother of three little girls in a different world, with less than sanitary conditions sees her chance to flee and build herself a good life in the death of her husband and his father (his mother already deceased) during the invasion of England and flees with the triplets (Andromeda, Cassiopeia und Narcissa ; nearly a year old), the Malfoy family fortune and her maids to Greece. From there she boards a spanish ship that takes her and her companions to Australia. At the end of the 8 month journey the spanish ship is nearly destroyed in a storm and Helen and her companions go from board at the Chinese port where they start building themselves a new existence_

_Helens gets the news of the death of Malfoy from a dragon rider – she nearly faints not because of Malfoys death but because she knows what that means for her daughters and her – the Malfoy line was without a direct male heir and so the manor and the title as well as the money would go to the next male relative, sb living in London – she knows she only has a few months if not weeks time to press as much money out of the things she can sell– because after that she would have to remarry and her daughters would most likely be engaged as soon as possible after the funeral and then raised by the families of their fiances – she can't touch the family fortune because she is sure it's monitored by the bankers and the soon to be Lord Malfoy. She confines in Beth, her closest friend and they decide to leave England with the girls – Beth doesn't have close family and the other relatives think of her as a burden.- Because of the upcoming funeral there are a lot of so called friends and family members that Helen never had met before who wish to give her their condolences – the servants have a lot to do - this is the perfect chance for Beth to bring as much small things out of the Manor to be sold as possible – Helens jewelry is going to be the last because her other handmaidens would discover it if it went missing – a lot of valuable flower vases that Lord Malfoy had locked away to prevent their destruction is squirreled away by the seventeen year old male servant Matthew that discovered the plan of the two woman and sees it as his duty to accompany them and protect them – he is an orphan as well – Helen discovers the vault under the drawing room in which they find gold and jewelry, as well as paintings and a few pocket watches._

**King's Cross**

Silence fell between the former headmaster of Hogwarts and Helen as the young women was mulling over the facts Dumbledore had just given her. In her mind she suddenly saw Dumbledore's actions in the last seven years in a new light, every horrible situation during her school time was one test or another.

 _Manipulated_ , her whole life she had been a puppet on invisible strings. From the second the prophecy was given by the fraud Trelawney, until the moment she was hit with Voldemort's killing curse. Every major event was in some way directed by this bloody bastard that was standing in front of her with his benevolent smile.  
Said puppeteer was expecting the girl-who-lived to come to the decision to go back and defeat Voldemort, to the, in his opinion, right decision. But said girl-who-lived was tired, Ron's betrayal and Hermione's death were still fresh on her mind. For the love of Merlin, why should she go back to save a world that didn't believe her, ridiculed her, hated her or changed their opinion from one moment to the next and hailed her as their savior!  
No she had enough. She wanted to go onward and see her parents, Sirius and Hermione again. No more fighting.

With a resolute nod Helen turned back to the deceased headmaster. "I want to go onward" she stated clearly.

"Of course my dear,… wait what? No, no, no you have to go back! Everybody is waiting for you!"

"No thank you headmaster, I want to meet my parents, I'm tired of fighting.", with that reply Helen made a step to the white Hogwarts express that was parked on the rails of 9¾.

"No you can't, I will not allow this foolishness girl!", the angry spoken sentence was the only warning Helen got before a spell shot in her direction.

Determined to not let this barmy old man force her into another one of his schemes, Helen started to sprint to the train door, while shooting stunners and tripping hexes at the surprisingly agile old man. While turning her head back to her escape passage, Helen missed a tripping curse that was sent to her feet. Said tripping curse was very poorly aimed and instead of hitting her in the back it only caught her left lower foot. The impact made the girl-who lived stumble and with a chocked gasp Helen over the platform and into the endless white.

The last thing she heard was the enraged cry of the old headmaster.

**White**

While gliding through the endless white around her Helen felt her magic slowly disappear. The one thing Helen could always rely on was now disappearing, was this her punishment for escaping her destiny?  
Forever gliding through this whiteness? Without her ability to move or to use magic?

In this endless Helen felt useless and after a near unimaginable time span she started hearing a voice, "I can't, I can't do this anymore, I want it to stop, oh please my lord, make it stop!"

Slowly Helen started to see a scene in front of her. It was as if she was seeing through a dirty glass pane, in front of her there was a big room decorated in a baroque style. On the right side there was a big bed from where the pleading sounds where coming from. Helen couldn't make out every detail of the women's face, but she could see that she was heavily pregnant. And judging by the frantic women around her, she was just giving birth.  
Willing herself closer, Helen was now drifting over the right side of the bed. The scene was becoming clearer and clearer and she finally could make out more noises then the frantic pleas of the black haired woman.

"Please my lady, only a few more pushes than everything is over!" a blonde woman, dressed in a brown dress and white apron said while wiping the sweat of the black haired women's forehead.

Strange, Helen could now see everything clearly, just the black haired woman was blurred. Said woman was completely exhausted and turned her head away from her maid while gasping for air. Leaving the scene behind her Helen followed one of the maids out of the room, behind the big double doors she could see the bustling atmosphere of a big household. Maids were fetching towels, hot water and one medicine after the other. The butler and the few male servants were carrying more wood into the house to keep the temperature steady. Through the window Helen could see a snow storm brewing.

The maid that just left the birthing room was intercepted by the grim looking butler, "How are things Annie?".

The harried maid turned to the rigid butler and said, "It doesn't look good. Lady Helen has been in labor for more than three days. She is completely exhausted and the baby doesn't seem to come out.", and with a hasty curtsy she was on her way to fetch the smelling salt.

'Lady Helen?' Helen tilted her head and went back to the first room. Coming closer until she nearly touched the heavily panting woman she looked her directly into the face, and nearly started hyperventilating, that was her! Or well at least a double with her name.  
But why was she here? To see herself in another dimension give birth? Yes other dimension, Helen didn't know exactly from where this knowledge came but she knew that this was happening in a different dimension.

Another hour had gone by and her other self slowly was losing her last strength, her breath was reduced to a pathetic wheeze, until she finally stopped breathing completely and her soul began to leave her body. The moment around her froze until the two Helens stood across from each other.

"You are me, aren't you?" the soft voice startled the ex-girl-who-lived out of her musings.

"Yes, I come from a different dimension, I got lost on the way to the afterlife, but yes we are essentially the same, that's why I could come to you, your dying body drew my soul in.", n her mind Helen's thoughts were racing, how did she KNEW this? Was that an afterlife bonus to be all knowledgeable about things pertaining death?

"Ah, and are you going to the afterlife now?", Helens softer counterpart asked.

"No, I can't. I drifted here by accident, and I will continue to drift until another dying counterpart will draw me to her last moments on earth.", the sentence was said bitterly, she just wanted to see her loved ones again, hell even just living again and building a new live would be better than this drifting through whiteness.

As if her other self had read her thoughts she asked, "Would you be able to take my place? It's not a happy life with that accursed husband of mine, but you would no longer drift around, and my baby needs to be birthed and later will need a mother.", at her last comment the newly deceased looked sadly unto her bloated belly, "After all I can't go back any more, so please take my place and bring my baby in to this world!", she suddenly pleaded desperately.

"I can't do that I'm not ready to be a mother I have no idea what to do!" the now panicked ex witch shouted, but looking at the desperate face of her counterpart she finally caved in "I… hmm well okay, I will take your place and take care of your child but I can't promise that I will be a good mother!"

Relieved the other Helen smiled and said, "Don't worry you will be, after all we are the same! But before you take my place I should probably tell you about my life so that you won't be completely unprepared when you take over my role."

Snorting Helen turned back to her other self, "Don't worry, we will just transfer your memories. Thanks to the fact that we are mirror souls we will be able to do this just through touching. Give me your hand, please…" and with that the memories of their respective counterpart was transferred to the other.

Stumbling and rubbing their heads against the upcoming headache, the former Gryffindor started to laugh, "Oh god, figures that I would be married to Malfoy in this dimension, oh what the hell okay,… wait Dragons? This world hast dragons but no magic? Well hell what do you know.", sighing she turned and waved her other self, "I wish you a pleasant afterlife!"

"And I you the best of luck and a satisfying live, even though there aren't any magical beings in this world, goodbye!"

With that she slowly faded into warm light while Helen drifted to the soulless body underneath her, she had a child to birth! With a last deep breath Helen sank into the exhausted body and opened her mouth to take in a deep breath.

**Birth**

"My lady, oh thank the Lord, you didn't answer for a minute, I thought we had lost you! Please pace yourself it's time to push now."

'Oh fuck' the just breathed in air swished out of Helen when sharp pain ran through her body. It felt similar to the cruciatus curse but the pain was more centered. Oh god and that's what women go through to have children? Helen swore that after this she wouldn't have more, giving birth once was enough! Panting she pushed the exhausted body to it's edge, she would give birth to this damn child and if this was the last thing she would ever do!

"I can see the head, push again my lady, please, it will end soon!", and with a final push Helen felt something leave her body.

The whimper that filled the room brought a smile to Helens face, she did it, her counterparts and now her child was alive!  
She fell back gasping for air, relieved that most of the work had already been done by the other Helen, 'Hhm, okay maybe it wasn't so bad,…' she was thinking as she tried to relax her tensed muscles. So when the next contraction hit, she was completely unprepared.

"Oh god, why doesn't it stop?" she asked desperately.

"My lady it looks like you are having twins, please brace yourself, there, breath in and push!", the blonde woman beside her said before she swept her sweat soaked forehead.

'Fucking figures!' while trying to convince her body to comply Helen was cursing her luck, of course she would have twins! Nothing ever went easy for her!  
The second child came out faster than the first, it was still an excruciating pain that Helen was feeling but at least it left the new mother with some air in her lungs, not like the first one. Her second child let out a loud wail in comparison to the first one and just as she wanted to ask the blonde woman to hand the two babies to her another wave of contractions hit her.

"What the hell is this? Am I damned to push out children for all eternity?", the loud screamed sentence shocked the maids, that weren't used to their lady's raised voice, for a second before they were back at the side of their lady.

The two children were taken to the adjourned room to be washed.  
Clawing at her bed sheet Helens' face turned into a determined mask, this baby was the last that she would be pushing out in her remaining live! And if that arrogant git of a husband of hers tried to touch her again, she would castrate him, noble lord or not!  
With a final act of strength the last infant was pushed out and Helen sank completely exhausted into the sheets.

Helen waited for the cry of the little one, but it never came, anxious she sat up again and looked at the brown haired woman who was looking frightened at the bloody little body, "Give me my child", the black haired woman demanded harshly.

The maid let out a squeak and hurried over to the exhausted mother and handled the baby covered in a white sheet over. Whipping away the blood and birth fluids Helen was relieved to see that her youngest was breathing, even though it didn't even gave away the tiniest sound, while looking at the tiny thing she checked the sex of her youngest, a girl. Smiling she wondered what the other two were.

She turned to the waiting maid and asked, "Marianne, do you know the gender of my other children?"

"Ah yes my lady, you have three daughters.", the last part was said very hushed.

Like many others of the maids she expected her lady to be angry or at the very least be disappointed to not have birthed the so desired male heir. But the lady of the Malfoy house just nodded and smiled. Comforted that everything was alright and that she now knew her children's gender Helen handed her tiny daughter back to the maid to be washed and put into clothes.

Helen was drifting in and out of consciousness for the next two hours until she was woken by a reluctant blonde haired maid.

Her name was Elisabeth, but everybody called her Beth and she was one of Helens' handmaiden, her favorite to be exact, "I apologize my lady but, the snow storm prevented the arrival of the wet nurse, and the children,… your daughters are hungry,…"

Tiredly Helen rubbed her hand over her face, right she had completely forgotten that in this century it was normal for the wealthy to leave their children to be fed by wet nurses.

"Please bring them to me Beth, and could you fetch me some water, I'm feeling parched!", relieved the woman left the room.

A short time later Helen was feeding her children for the first time, it hurt in the beginning, but to see them so satisfied and calm was well worth the little aching in her breasts.

Two days later she was finally allowed to leave her bed. The storm had finally broken and two of the male servants had been sent out to bring the wet nurse and her child to the Manor. Helen had decided that a wet nurse was probably a very good idea, she wasn't sure if she had enough milk for her three babies and formula was kind of hard to come by in this century.  
Leaving her children with Anne, the oldest of her maids Helen decided it was time to explore a bit. Thanks to the other Helen's memories she had no trouble finding her way through the halls, to be honest it felt like she had lived her counterparts life and not just gained her memories, the only difference was that she didn't feel frightened by her husband Draco Malfoy and her father-in-law Lucius Malfoy as the original of this dimension. To be perfectly honest, those arrogant ferrets were just asking for a good verbal beating.  
Of course Helen was completely aware that she couldn't speak and take actions against those two, at least not directly, not in this age and certainly not in this England, but dreaming wasn't forbidden was it?  
Still slightly unsteady on her feet Helen moved to the library, a grand room with slightly over one hundred books, a vast collection in this time, a big fire place and two comfortable couches standing in the middle of the room.  
Resting her fatigued body on the comfortable couch, Helen looked around the room for something interesting and her eyes landed on the davenport that stood hidden beside a smaller shelf of old maps.  
Curious Helen sauntered over to the piece of furniture and tried to open the drawers, every single one was looked. Looking around but not finding a key Helen shrugged her shoulders and wandered to the shelves filled with books. A big tomb with a dragon on the cover caught her interest and for the rest of the afternoon she lost herself in the book, learning about different dragon breeds.  
Helen was interrupted only twice, once when it was time to feed the girls and the second time when the wet nurse arrived.  
Explaining the changed situation to the woman named Mary, Helen told her that the two of them would take turns. The wet nurse was first scandalized of the idea that a noble lady would breast feed, but saw reason after she realized that she would have had to feed four babies, her own included if Helen hadn't agreed to share the breast feeding.


	2. Walking Dead

**Time line:**

19\. May (conception) – 13. June (pregnancy test) – 10.July (arrival in Atlanta) - 13. July (Apocalypse, 2 months + 2 weeks pregnant) – 25. July (Helen meets David and Sarah) -3. August (Helen, David and Sarah start their journey, Merle is left on the roof and is eaten by Walkers) –4. August (Daryl finds Merle) - 5. August (Daryl leaves the Group) -13. February birth

**Story outline:**

Helen Black – 28 years, pregnant, single, emergency doctor, recently promoted, sent on a medical conference in Atlanta – outbreak, everybody is turning into zombies – Helen hides in her hotel – 2 weeks later she tries to make a break for it – finds a 6 and an 12 year old – siblings Sarah and David– survived in their parents drug store after the outbreak – parents bitten/dead– kids and Helen band together – they stay a week and a half and collect supplies - Helen cleans out the drug store – steals an black transporter from a car dealership – fills the transporter with the medicine, food that she took from the hotel, kids clothes from their apartment upstairs, her clothes, water bottles – gets gas, spare wheels and repair gear from the car dealership, pillows & blankets from the apartment + camping gear, matches, Zippos, toothbrushes, cooking gear, anything of use, books for the kids – Helen avoids death through zombie thanks to Davids baseball bat – swears to look for weapons – decides to get somewhere more remote – decides with the kids to go to hot springs village in Arkansas – the kids had been there last year and she always wanted to go – so why not – is normally a 10 hours drive – they get out of Atlanta city, start raiding supermarkets wherever they can – highway completely over flown – they decide to take the remote roads through the small towns – begin their journey.

Daryl Dixon – hot tempered, red neck, little brother, - Merle dies on the roof in Atlanta – the locket on chain was old and broke – Merle was eaten/ bitten – Daryl nearly kills T Dog and decides to leave the group – Glenn is abducted – meet the people of the nursing home – return to the camp - because they have the delivery truck they get supplies– are in time for Daryl to stop the fish fry in the camp– decide to grill the fish a little bit outside – eat – see the walkers – can kill them only Ed dies. On the next day Daryl leaves the group with his pick up and Merles bike – 3 weeks after the outbreak – he decides that he will need a better and safer ride and a lot more hunting gear – this is a new world and if he wants to survive he has to be as prepared as he can be – makes his way slowly down from the creek by Summerville – Rome- Cedartown – Piedmont-Jacksonville – Weaver –Saks-Anniston – oxford – Lincoln –moody –whites chapel-Trussville – Tarrant – this takes about a week and a half - meets on a supply trip to Birmingham Helen and the kids

 

 

 

**Characters:**

Helen Black:

28 years old – black hair and blue eyes, fair skin colour, orphan, grew up in Seattle, full ride to college, emergency doctor, pregnant – doesn’t know who the father is – strong will to live, warm, even tempered, doesn’t give up, has a weakness for everything sweet, coffee and especially chocolate

David Fernandez:

12 years old – black hair and brown eyes, darker skin colour - child of Spanish immigrants- born in the states, Atlanta, preferred weapon baseball bat carries a Swiss pocket knife and fishing line everywhere, has a younger sister, is very protective over her, saw his parents die, very suspicious against strangers – brash and rude, standoffish – very protective for his family, kind, tries to make Helens job easier wherever he can, speaks English and Spanish, learns how to set traps on his own, sees Helen as older sister/ aunt

Sarah Fernandez:

6 years old – black hair and brown eyes, darker skin colour, child of Spanish immigrants, born in the states, Atlanta, has a Swiss pocket knife, before the outbreak happy, cheerful child, after outbreak – traumatized, nearly mute, very shy, tries to help however she can, sees Helen as sugorate mother

Dary Dixon:

31 years old – dark blond, blue eyes, skin is tanned– redneck – older brother Merle dies in Atlanta – brash, loud, rude, hot-tempered, born in Georgia, preferred weapon: crossbow, his mother raised him– she was the one who showed him how to hunt –until he was 11 then she died Merle got the custody right after he was dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps – Daryl had to raise himself – left school when he was 15 – worked in a garage and as handyman since then – has respect for women – would never raise his hand against one – never had a meaningful relationship – socially awkward- is terrified of crying kids – has secretly a soft spot for them – Merles death was hard on him

Dr. Joshua Herman:

51 years old, senior surgeon, Helens mentor, kind even tempered, fatherly type, married has 2 children Helens age, wife Evelyn,

 

**An Idiot‘s guide to surviving the Apocalypse**

**Life changing news**

„Okay calm down, it’s just a test, you will know in just a few minutes, breathe,…“ mumbled the young woman, who was nervously pacing through her flat.

Helen Black was 28 years old and a newly minted emergency doctor. She had black hair and blue eyes, a weakness for cute animals, especially dogs. The young women finally found herself in a position where her carrier started to take off and provided enough income to start paying back her university loans. She lived in a small two room apartment in 2253 South Main Street in Seattle. She preferred main stream music over any other kind and was one of those people who worshipped chocolate and coffee in a nearly obscene way. So to sum it up she was a typically normal woman at the end of her 20’s, one of those thousands that you can observe everyday in the streets, scurrying down the streets of Seattle with one purpose or another in their mind, and yes just as many other women she was also very single!

Helen had never been one to judge a particular day of the week. In her experience every day had the potential to become very good or extraordinarily bad. However, she had decided already, before even having glanced at the little white stick that perhaps Thursdays were not to be trusted. The young emergency doctor was in some serious trouble, she was already two weeks late and right at that moment she was waiting for the result of the covertly bought pregnancy test that she had been carrying with her for two days. Today she finally decided to deal with the situation that had started to take a toll on her nerves.

“Helen seriously, you just have to take a look, after that it’s over,” Helen thought and took a deep breath, a little voice in her head whispered ‘Yeah in one way or another’ and cackled evilly.

„Positive,…“ she said half loud into the silence of her living room as she stared on the little white stick with the red plus, „Crap“.

‚Crap‘, summed the whole situation up very nicely, the just newly promoted doctor thought; she really was in a bind.

„Okay, I’ve about one and a half months to decide,…“ she trailed of and starred unseeingly out of the window.

If she calculated it right she was 4 weeks and five days pregnant, ‘Hmpf, I’m such an overachiever,… I know the exact date of the conception,…’ she thought ironically. The reason for knowing the date so precisely was because it was the day she had begun to call ‘THAT Saturday‘, the first time she had lost control since she was 17, ‘… figures…’.  
Snorting Helen turned to her kitchen window and stared blankly out of it as her mind was going over the facts.

The 19th May of 2012, the day she would call in the following years as the day her life began to take a direction she would have never imagined in her wildest nightmares.

That day two ER nurses and 3 colleagues from the neurology department convinced Helen to accompany the group to one of their drinking binges. Normally the workaholic would have declined the offer and worked overtime or would have gone home to spend the evening alone with a good book or in front of the TV. But against better judgment the young doctor gave in and came along that evening.

Reason for this last-minute change in heart was an exhausting week that had been nearly endless for Helen and that had both ER teams, night AND day shift downright depressed. Helen just wanted to forget the gruesome scenes that had been playing in her mind in an endless loop. Two opposing gangs had started an outright war against each other and there had been street fights distributed over four blocks for nearly a week. Some of the boys just left the hospital long enough to be put right back in there with even worse injuries.

Depressed, discouraged and with a Seattle sized headache, Helen decided to indulge that evening and just forget her worries.

And forget she did, on Sunday morning she woke up in a cheap hotel with a headache that you only get after a long night of drinking, the taste of alcohol and vomit on her tongue and a very pleasant tingle between her legs. So with no idea what she did the evening before and with whom, Helen put on her clothes and hailed a taxi and just went home. She spent the rest of the day wondering of her mysterious one night stand and finally dismissed the whole thing as a result of a bad week and an experience that she wouldn’t want to repeat.

The Monday following, the nurses congratulated her on her catch. According to them, Helen had left around two am giggling and flirting in the arms of a drop dead gorgeous brunet specimen of the category men. Honestly she could neither remember the evening nor the so called brunet hunk; she just smiled mysteriously and left the two gossips to their imagination.

Coming out of her flashback Helen tried to concentrate on the problem at hand and weighted the pro’s and con’s. On one side she thought herself mature and financial secure enough to raise a child as a single mum in the heart of Seattle. On the other side she wasn’t sure if she wanted to raise this child alone and to be honest she would love to continue pursuing her carrier, and with a baby on the way, that wouldn’t happen, at least not in the near future.

Being an orphan herself Helen wanted the absolute best for her own future children, and that included the mother aka her, being there for them and actually raising them, not like some of her colleagues who left their newborns and toddlers to be raised by nannies and housekeepers.

To be honest the thought of a baby growing inside of her, her little baby to be exact, was absolutely terrifying and she really couldn’t make a decision at the moment, she was just too agitated. Making her mind up, she grabbed her bag and her keys and took a stroll down the street.

Helen lived in 2253 South Main Street, Seattle, it was an apartment complex just 2 minutes away from Blanche Park. Dr. Blanche S. Lavizzo Park, was opposite to the Seattle Children’s Hospital, that meant there were always some children around, be it patients or their visitors.

And while Helen was taking a walk she could hear a bunch of them laughing while racing around, the sound went straight to her already emotional completely unhinged mind. Biting her lip and with tears in her eyes she increased her pace down to the edge of the little park. Finally finding a free park bench Helen sat down and stared blankly at the green bushes opposite of her.

While deeply immersed in her own thoughts she didn’t see the little four year old toddler that was crawling determined in the direction of the colorful flowers on her left side.

 

 

 

 

“Are you sure you are ready for this, doing this completely alone?”, a surprised and concerned Dr. Herman asked.

The kind older doctor, had been her mentor when she was in her internship.

“I’m sure” the younger doctor smiled tentatively, “It won’t be easy, but I,… we will be fine,…” she trailed of and looked down at her still flat tummy.

“If you are sure,…” the still concerned gaze turned into a small fatherly smile “well then, congratulations, please feel free to come to me if you need something”.

Smiling back at her old mentor Helen felt a lot lighter now that she told him about her secret. “Dr. Her,… Josh please don’t tell anybody from the personnel, I want to wait a little bit until I’m sure I’m not going to miscarry” Helen pleaded, the reassuring smile calmed her nerves down that had been building up since she entered the Hospital this morning.

“Of course I won’t tell, but Helen please do me a favor and don’t overwork yourself, you have to think about your child.”

She grinned and nodded Dr. Herman was always mother henning her. With a quick goodbye and a lunch date for the next day Helen scurried back to her station, and with a sigh she went through the over dew paperwork that had been amassing since the start of the week.

The next day:

With a deep sigh Helen sat down, with the right hand grabbing her drink with the left massaging her temple to ease the building headache.

Dr. Herman was wincing in sympathy “Rough day?”

“Ugh, yes I haven’t even been here for 5 hours and I already had an perforated lung, a baseball player who got an baseball against his head, a leg that was broken in 4 places and that are just the major cases, I’m really not looking forward to my afternoon shift, if that’s how the day will continue,…” sighing Helen leaned back and took a deep breath and then took a bite out of her turkey sandwich.

“Right, I heard about that leg, the surgery begins at two pm,...” he trailed off and went back to his own sandwich.

After the two ate in peaceful silence, Dr. Herman asked the stressed 28 year old about her pregnancy.

“To be honest, I can’t complain, yes I have those strange food cravings, but at least the morning sickness hasn’t been haunting me,… thank god!”

“Ah, yes the morning sickness,…” he grinned humored “Evie had it both times she was pregnant, and every time she was very very testy until the throwing up stopped around the fifth month, be glad you don’t have to deal with it yet.” amused he glanced at the black haired young woman. The rest of their well earned lunch break the two spent chatting over light topics and old anecdotes.

 

 

 

**The begin of the end**

It was smothering hot at the airport in Atlanta when she arrived; armed with a new water bottle Helen braved the masses of sweating, stinking and highly aggressive passengers which poured through the arrival gate.

After fighting herself through that chaos Helen was relieved that she found her baggage after only one round on the baggage arrival carousel and took off to find herself a taxi.

Tried, hungry and annoyed the young doctor arrived at her Hotel that the Hospital booked for her, it was a pleasant surprise for Helen, it was clean, central and the personnel was courteous.

After a quick shower and a lot more relaxed than at her arrival, Helen ambled down the Streets to Atlanta’s center, where she bought herself a big sandwich and let herself relax completely as she window shopped through the streets.

At ten in the evening Helen returned satisfied from her stroll through the Downtown and made herself ready for bed.

Standing in front of the mirror with just her bra on she noticed that her skin had a light sunburn and noted that she would need to buy sun blocker the next day. While her thoughts wandered, so did her gaze, it shifted involuntary to her still flat stomach, slowly she lifted her hand to her belly and petted it.

“Hi there little one, I know I’m not the picture perfect mum and there will be a rough time a head of us…, but I think we will be okay, even without a daddy,…” grinning she stroked along her bellybutton, “After all we have Josh and Evie, they will love to play aunt and uncle,… or even grandma and grandpa!” amused and lighthearted she went to bed.

That night she slept well for the first time since the week before, and when she woke up the next day she decided that those horrible nightmares that had haunted her sleep until now where just a morbid way to cope with the gruesome pictures that she saw every day in the ER.

 

 

**The drugstore kids**

With as much caution as Helen was able to, she sneaked down the staircase until she saw the entrance hall. She gripped her trusty metal pipe harder when she saw those, those things stumbling around.

There were three of them slowly moving around. To be honest already one was too much for Helen, she wasn’t squeamish, seriously you lost that at the latest in your second year at college, but this was something COMPLETELY different.

Silently heaving and trying not to throw up she counted to three and started to running to the zombie nearest to her. Helen recognized the hotel clerk that helped her to check in, in her first opponent, turned to her and reached out with one of his bloody hands to grab her and narrowly missed the charging brunet. With a quick movement her pipe was shoulder high and then she hammered it with as much strength as possible against his…, it’s head. With a sickening crunch the head gave and the creature fell like a puppet to the floor. Trying to keep it together and not vomiting besides the dead body, Helen rotated and looked at the other two that had now started coming at her a lot faster than she had anticipated.

Helen hadn’t even really comprehended that she had caved in the skull of a human being as already the next living dead came at her. This one was a girl, if she had been still alive she would be around 20 and probably very pretty, now she had a chalk white face and the corners of her mouth were ripped open, bloody and gave her a real grotesque look, to be honest she reminded Helen of Joker in the movie The Dark Knight, that came out a few years ago. With a growl it came at Helen, just like the first it tried to grab her, Helen didn’t even think about, with a reflex she hadn’t thought she had, she had punted her weapon into its face.

Surprisingly that didn’t take it down directly so Helen hit against its temple for good measure, that proved to be effective, the creature dropped like a sack of potatoes. Now encouraged with her success against the first two Helen took two steps to the last that was coming as fast at her as it could with one leg standing awkwardly away, again the hissing growling sound that also the other two gave from them came out of its mouth, and with a wide swing Helen caught the last creature in the temple and felled it.

Hard breathing Helen nearly dropped the metal pipe, trying to calm herself down from the adrenaline high. She surveyed the room and noted the closed main entrance door and the fire doors right and left that were barricaded.

With a sigh Helen came to the conclusion that there weren’t any threats at the moment and started to look for useful things.

 

 

A whimper let Helen turn around, cautious she lifted her trusty pipe only to let it sink a second later. She couldn’t believe her eyes, before her stood to kids, the boy that held a baseball bat couldn’t be older than thirteen and the little girl that had given them away was hiding behind him couldn’t be older than five.

Helen couldn’t help herself, she let go of her weapon and started to chuckle that turned into a sob.

The apocalypse happened, turned the dead into zombies and who had survived in this bad rip-off of a horror movie?... a pregnant woman and two little kids. Was it a miracle or just dumb luck??? In her opinion it was just dumb luck. Seriously the only thing that missed in this fiasco was a shining white knight on a horse that came riding into the city at sundown to rescue the helpless,… nah even in the worst parody that wouldn’t happen.

With a sigh Helen concentrated back at reality and the two kids standing in front of her. The boy was eyeing her very suspiciously and the girl was just frightened ‘Great’, Helen thought ‘of course they would be suspicious/ frightened, the world just ended and the first person they met first starts laughing and then bawling, great just great, that has to be the worst first impression you ever made’.

“Sorry kids,…” the young doctor said calmly “I know that you must think that I’m not right in the head but I’m just so relieved, you are the first living people I’ve met since all this happened,…” she ended the sentence with a faraway look “Eh, right my name is Helen and yours,…?”

“David” came the curt reply of the boy, “and this is my sister Sarah”, he pointed with his free hand on the little girl with pig tails.

Helen smiled kindly at the two and said “Nice to meet you too,… are you alone here?” both kids tensed and became defensive “and if we are?” the boy bit out bravely.

“Ah,... I didn’t mean to offend you,… I’m alone too…”, with that she smiled sadly at them. “What are you going to do, know that there are less of those, those zombies on the streets?”.

Snorting the boy told her “Getting as fast out of the city as possible, as should you lady!”

Helen sighed “So you too don’t think this will stop do you?”

“Tse stop, it will only get worse, as soon as they don’t find anything to feed on they will leave the city and look elsewhere for food, at that time Sarah and me will be as far away from here as possible.”

Helen lifted her head a bit, ’What,… was he serious? That… oh of course that would happen, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, that boy was right’ “Tse can’t believe I didn’t think of that,… you’re completely right we have to get out of here as soon as we can, … would you like to come with me?”

Again both of them tensed “What do you want from us?” David nearly growled.“

Want from you…?” Helen trailed off confused “Oh, oh my god don’t even start thinking like that, I just thought you two are alone and I’m alone and we could help each other, and also I need somebody to talk, I’ll go crazy without any human contact!”

A little more relaxed David let the bat sink and Sarah came a little bit out behind her bother “What could we kids help you with, other than being dead weight?”

He looked a little disbelieving, and Helen honestly started becoming concerned about the little boy that shouldn’t know about the darker sides of the world,… What an ironic thought, that boy had survived until now in this strange new world, “survival of the fittest” was now the rule number one.

Cynically Helen laughed “Hmpf, you are right to be this suspicious with people you don’t know and especially in this new world, to be honest, I thought it’s more of my duty as an adult to ask you, but now that I think about it, I think I’ll need you more than you me,…” With a deep breath Helen leaned against one of the shelves. “Well you see I’m three months pregnant, at the moment it’s not a problem but in a few months? I won’t be able to run fast or protect myself anymore,… and when I have my baby I will be out of commission for at least 2 if not 3 weeks. I couldn’t do this alone, so think long and hard if you want to have a dead weight like me with you.” After ending that sentence Helen looked calmly at the siblings.

Sarah and David looked at her with wide eyes and then at her stomach that didn’t look out of normal, at least not yet. Sarah pulled at David’s arm and sent puppy dog eyes at her older brother.

David just sighed and said “Yes, okay we will travel with you, lady, but you will listen if we have something to say, we won’t just blindly follow!” at that she could only nod mutely, it was their right after all.

The three hunkered down for the night in the apartment the kids had lived with their family, David had had the forethought and had started stacking everything of use in easy reaching distance, there were baseball bats and gear as well knifes, clothes and canned goods in a duffel bag. Really for a 12 year old this was very impressive. She asked him about this and he answered sullen that their father had told them what to do after their mum had turned and bit him. He had disposed of their mum and then driven out after saying goodbye to them. Helen had to hold back tears, god those poor kids, especially David, he had since then taken care of his little sister and made sure that they would survive.

After that story Helen didn’t felt hungry anymore, she still ate though; she knew she would have to keep her strength up. David and her studied the maps and tried to decide where it would be most likely to survive in the future. She wrote on a college block the basic needs that this place would have to fulfill. Shelter, water, food and warmth were the words that circled in her head. She showed them David and he nodded before he wrote down weapons beside shelter. Smart cookie. They agreed that it had to be somewhere, remote, not only because of the walkers but because of the other surviving humans. David told her about the gangs that he had seen running around and shooting at each other. Helen agreed that it would be the best to avoid them, she shuddered when she thought about what they would do to a single woman and two little kids, the apocalypse would surely bring out either the best or the worst out of people. Another deciding factor would be water, Helen wasn’t sure how long the water would be running until it broke down because of the lack of maintenance, so a river or lake would be essential, as well as a safe shelter and warmth for the winter. Weapons were another thing, Helen had no idea how to operate a gun, but she would have to learn, not only for protecting but also to hunt. They would need meat in the near future. After all cans would someday run out and what then?  
David and Helen discussed several options, but they didn’t seem to be able to find a place that would have all their criteria and they didn’t want to settle for a half assed solution. It was Sarah who found the perfect place. She had listen to the two talking and said in a small voice that she wanted to go Hot Springs in Arkansas, where they had spent their holidays last year after their father had won in the lottery. Both David and Helen had been shocked and then scrambled to check Sarah’s idea. Of course the hot springs village was the largest gated community in US. Helen had heard about it from a friend of hers that had spent her honeymoon there. The area would be perfect, a lake area with hot springs, a lot of woods around the place as well as mountains which would deter the Dead a bit. Motivated and excited the three started talking about what supplies they would need and how they would reach the village in Arkansas. Helen made another list for this, she wrote down anything that came into her mind, canned food, clothes, water, extra gas, baseball bats, knifes, camping gear, tents, college blocks, writing utensils, matches and lighter, survival books, some easier books for Sarah, board games, shoes, medicine, baby stuff, winter jackets, gloves, beanies,… the list went on and on and on, the children also contributed to it with good ideas. Around 11 in the evening the three finally went to bed after an exhausted day, Helen sleeping on the giant couch in the living room while the kids slept in their rooms.

On the next day the first thing that Helen did was look for a suitable car. Fernando, David and Sarah’s father had taken the family SUV from the garage and only left the small city car that had belonged to Marissa, their mum, which was unsuitable for their long trip. Helen darted between the cars on the streets and narrowly escaped a horde of the Dead, when she saw the advertisement of the car dealership on the wall. A quick glance at her city map confirmed that it was only 5 blocks away from the drug store and that she already had made half the way. Determined she darted from building to building, hiding in abandoned stores and climbing on fire escapes to avoid the undead. An hour after she had left the drug store she finally arrived at the car dealer ship. Most of the cars in the front had either been stolen or crashed, this made Helen anxious, but she hadn’t made her way here so that she could just return empty handed with all her courage she crossed the street and made her way onto the property. Three Dead were between her and the entrance, with her trusty steel pipe she bashed their heads in before she cautiously entered the building. In the building itself there were another four, which she could easily dispatch before she arrived in the back where most of the cars were still there. Sighing relieved Helen took a closer look at the cars, a black transporter caught her eye. It would have enough room for the three of them and their supplies. They would also be able to sleep in the car and could make a quick getaway if needed. Happy over this found Helen returned to the building to search for the keys. While searching for them she also found some chips, chocolate and instant coffee. Thankfully the keys were all numbered to the car parking slot and so Helen just swiped the key of the board. The tank of the transporter was half full and with a quick move she backed the vehicle to the entrance of the building, then she threw everything from extra wheels to toolboxes and reserve gas canister, as well any food she could find. After that she siphoned the other cars empty and stocked the gas in the transporter. On her last sweep Helen found a shot gun under the counter as well as two smaller hand guns. She put them on the front seat and then made her way back through the streets. The noise of a car attracted the attention of the Dead and with a curse, Helen floored the ones that were in her way. In front of the drug store she hurriedly waved at David who had kept guard on the second floor. Said boy hurried down and opened the garage for her. Helen backed into the building and the door was closed before the Dead could reach it. Relieved she got out of the car and told the kids about her eventful morning. They ate lunch while they discussed what would be essential to take with them. After lunch they started loading up the car with canned goods. 


	3. One Piece

**Ace’s rescue or why trapping the sea goddess in Impel Down was a bad idea:**

**Meeting**

“Take me with you! Please take me with you, you are getting out of here aren’t you? Take me with you I’m begging you!” the hoarse voice of a woman ringed through the halls of the sixed level of Impel Down.

Luffy turned and looked at the small cell the farthest from the elevator put his head to the side and then grinned “Sure, but we have to hurry!!!”

And with that the nearly 18 year old pirate opened the cage that was littered with sutras and seals.

**The Sea**

Water was foaming and she could feel the spray on her face, the salty and wet taste on her lips was like nectar.   
The noises of the sea were calling to her while she climbed on board behind the strange boy that had freed her from the never ending darkness. The sun was blazing on her skin.   
It had been far too LONG!

**Following**

She was running behind the black haired boy named Luffy that was so determined to safe his older brother, this loyalty and love made her smile. She nearly had lost her faith in mankind, while she contemplated the people that had damned her to this never ending loneliness. But now, now she was sure that the race as whole was still worth it, and even if it was only for exceptions like Luffy.

In contrast to the other inmates she had no trouble keeping up with the pirate captain, after all her powers were slowly coming back, even if the majority of them were still sealed under this stupid sutras. Nevertheless she would have to ask one of the humans to open the seals when her avatar had finally enough strength to withstand an unsealing, the decades of no nourishment and sun and being cut off her creations had nearly dissolved it, now finally on the surface and out of the special for her constructed prison, she could feel the powerful energies of her creations feeding her the strength that she needed.

**Fear**

The fist went straight through the pirates breast cage, piercing both lungs as well as his stomach, and burning him from the inside, Ace fell into the arms of his younger brother that he had just protected from the blow.   
Determined to help the siblings, she abandoned her hiding place behind the rock ledge and ran to the devastated black haired boy.

“Luffy, look at me, no don’t look at your brother at me, I can help him but I need to get rid of these sutras, help me, rip them off!!!”

Akainu, that had withdrawn a little bit to give the two some privacy and gloat at the end of the miserable Pirate spawn suddenly went white.

The Marine called nearly desperately “No, no what is SHE doing out here!!! Marines!!! Contain her, she must not lose these seals, do you understand, under NO circumstance!!!”

“Do it now Luffy!!!” the black haired woman’s voice became urgent while she turned her back to him to show him the seals and sutras that layered her body.

A normal human would have had perished already under the mass of seals that drained her life force and powers. With a determined grip Luffy ripped them off of her and was blasted back into the ground like the others standing and fighting around them. Everything stopped as they felt this devastating power that originated from the tiny black haired woman in their midst.

**Healing**

Her skins ethereal glow brightened the surfaces and people around her as she moved to the dying pirate on her side.

With practiced ease she suspended the soul that was about to leave while she reversed the damage to the body and breathed new life into it. Finally she guided the suspended soul back into the body.  
When Ace opened his eyes again, it was to the glistening blue eyes of the black haired woman that had returned him from the brink of death.

**Chaos**

“Contain them! The sea goddess shall not escape!”, the panicked cry of an official came from one of the windows of the main building, “They can’t leave!”

Chaos followed after the order was given. Every man, pirate or marine thought the same word ‘Sea Goddess, the Marines had imprisoned a sea goddess?’  
With a careless hand movement the goddess in the midst stopped all movement of the Marine side. They had frozen and couldn’t move nor speak. The pirates that had fought against them stood confused around and some of them threw this unearthly woman scared glances.

**Escape**

Luffy looked wide eyed at the woman he had freed, before breaking into a grin, “That was so COOL! Are you really a goddess nee-chan?”

The captain of the Straw Hat crew laughed delighted as he swiped his gaze over the frozen Marines.

“Yes Luffy, but we should go, I’m sure reinforcements will be here soon!”, the female said gently.

“Huh, okay then let’s go!!! Come on Ace the last one at the ship doesn’t get dinner!”, and raced across the battle field and the ice to the Moby Dick.

Ace threw an uneasy glance at the black haired deity before he swallowed and said in a thick voice, “Thank you.”

His answer to that was a gentle smile, “Don’t worry about it, thank your brother instead of me, he freed me from my prison and made your healing possible.”

With that she slowly moved in the direction of the overactive Luffy.  
Before she passed Akainu completely she stopped and turned around again, her smile had something positively diabolical, with a hand wave a red light incased every Marine on the battle field and seeped into them.

Ace who had seen that cleared his throat and said, “Uh I’m afraid to ask but what did you do?”

“Hhm, have you ever heard of the saying break a mirror, seven years of bad luck? Well every proverb has a grain of truth in it. Just that I don’t need a broken mirror to curse them.”

With that she followed the other pirates onto the Moby Dick.

**Goddess**

The atmosphere on the pirate ship was tense, most of the pirates and ex-inmates threw nervous glances or worshipful ones at the black haired woman that stood beside Luffy and answered his onslaught of questions.

“Ne, ne nee-chan if you are a goddess why were you imprisoned? What’s your name and what do goddesses normally do? Do you eat like we do or something else, and is that food good?”

Suppressing a snort the goddess leaned against the railing and glances at Luffy’s older brother that had a hand over his face.

“LUFFY! Be more respectful, you are talking to a deity!”, Ace said nearly desperately.

Light laugher floated over the deck and stopped most of the men in their tracks, it was a beautiful and uplifting sound.

“Ah no worries, as long as it is Luffy I don’t mind the familiarity from you. To your question my name was given to me by humans two centuries ago, my real name is too hard to pronounce, but none of them are alive any more so at the moment I’m nameless.”, trailed the black haired female off.

Luffy seemed to think hard before he exclaimed, “Hhm, what about the name Hanare? I like it! I think you are a Hanare or what do you think Ace???”

Said brother’s eyes were as big as cannon balls, he hoped Luffy would survive that encounter with this deity. Ace was sure that that Luffy had gone too far this time and she would smite him into the ground, and there would be nothing he or anybody else would be able to do. Around him all the ones that had eavesdropped held their breath and waited for the punishment that would sure follow.  
They were all completely flabbergasted when the delighted laugh could be heard again and she smiled at Luffy.

“Hanare, hhm not bad, you really think I look like a Hanare??? Well okay, that’s the name I will use from now on. Thank you Luffy”, and with that she kissed him on the forehead.

**Devil Fruits**

While Luffy was occupied with the lecture from Ace about the association with deities and the respect they deserved, Hanare wandered under deck to the room that belonged to Whitebeard, the old captain had overdone it during the fight and was dying, from what she understood he was one of the most powerful enemies of the Marines and also a pain in the ass from what she read from the minds of the participants of this war.  
She opened the door to the bedroom and recognized Marco and Jozu as two of the Division Commanders under Whitebeard.

“Megami-sama”, Marco and also Jozu bowed while Whitebeard nodded in her direction, the latter less than his Commanders.

With a smile she sat herself on the bed edge and laid her hand onto the bare breast of Edward Newgate.

“You are dying.”, she said to him, unreadable expression on her face.

She ignored the pained expressions of the other two occupants of the room.

Slightly chuckling he said in a gravelly voice, “So I am.”

Hanare looked him deep in the eyes and saw how he lived his life. It was full of adventures, mistakes small and big, strong enemies, respect for those, loyalty and love for his family, the family that would be devastated by his death.

Two hundred years ago Hanare wouldn’t have involved herself in human business and conflicts like this, but two hundred years ago she also hadn’t suffered by the hands of the Marines, and she still felt annoyed by the human organization that had exploited her weakness.  
With a last glance into those expressive eyes she moved her hands over his heart and smiled slightly at the old man.

“Normally I don’t involve myself in human business, but well this group of fouls has annoyed me like no other in the last twenty thousand years and I am feeling a little bit vengeful. Furthermore it looks like you are bound to me twofold, so prolonging your life isn’t that big of an offense.”, Hanare explained to the stunned men around her.

The glow that followed her words healed the wounds of the battle Edward had been in and also his nearly completely destroyed liver that had been the reason for his slow painful demise.

“I thank you Megami-sama, but may I ask a question?”, the strengthened voice of Whitebeard sounded through the room.

“Ask away”, she answered amused.

“You said I’m bound twofold to you, what do you mean by that?”, Newgate asked cautiously, after all this was the deity that just prolonged his life.

Unreadable she seized him up before she laid her head to the side in an uncanny resemblance to Luffy before she grinned and said, “Twofold because you are a seaman, you travel the seas which are my realms and you are also a devil fruit user, another one of my creations.”

“You, you are the creator of the devil fruits?”, the last part of Marcos sentences was nearly lost to the other two humans, the goddess had heard him perfectly.

“Hhm, yes they are. A rather ingenious piece of work isn’t it? It took me a lot of strength and time to create them.”, she said smugly before her face turned into a scowl, “And that’s also the reason why this little backstabbing insects of Marines were able to subdue and imprison me. I was so exhausted from creating the fruits that it took only fifty haki users and a ton of sutras to interrupt my connection to my creations!”

Slightly miffed that she had been reminded of that mistake of hers she left the room and went in search of Luffy.

**Gift**

Hanare found Luffy eating on the outer deck and watching the sun going down. She sat herself to the seventeen year old boy and listened to the babblings of the purest soul on this ship.

After the sun had gone down she stood up and turned to her young savior, “Thank you again for freeing me, as a way to pay my debt I want to give you a gift.”

“Oh what is it?”, Luffy asked with wide eyes.

“I will fulfill a wish from you, any wish that you like.”, Hanare said warmly.

“Hhm, you already saved Ace, oh I know, can you give red hair Shanks his arm back? He gave it to the Sea King to save me,…”, trailed the young captain off.

“No wish for me to make you Pirate King, only to give a possible rival his dominant arm back?”, Hanare asked slightly disbelieving, he couldn’t be that selfless.

“Huh, but when you make me Pirate King now it wouldn’t be any fun!!! That would just be boring!”, Luffy whined.

Hiding her laugher behind her hand Hanare shook her head, Luffy was one of a kind.

“Hhm, very well, Akuma no Shanks will get his arm back, but still it doesn’t feel right, the debt isn’t paid in full,… you know what I will negate the effect that sea water has on you and all those that you deem worthy of your friendship.”

And with that she kissed Luffy again on his forehead before she faded into nothingness. 

**Shanks**

The Red Force’s sail were blown full with wind, the crew was tending to the bumps and scratches the ship had received while they had held Kaido back from stopping Whitebeard rescuing his son. When the Red Hair pirates had arrived at the Marine Headquarters they had found only the Marines and no Pirates in sight. Shanks couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head; it seemed as if Whitebeard really had done it. Amused he had turned around and brought the ship back on course for the New World. He would have to visit the Whitebeard pirates soon for the whole story.

When they stopped for the night at one of the empty islands not far from the entrance to the New World the crew was in the mood for a drinking binge and the cooks threw the meat and fish they had on giant cooking fires on the white sand beach.


	4. HP

**Of fucked up Mondays**

God damn Mondays.

Harry Potter was close to rip his hair out of his scalp, why the fuck did those things always happen to him? Because seriously wasn’t it enough that he lost his parents, godfather, honorary godfather and had to play savior for a back water society that was hiding their heads in the sand?

And then after he finally defeated Moldie-shorts and his merry round of clowns and thought that is it, life had to go and fuck him over again?

He had spent 3 years working his ass off in the Auror training, another year as apprentice and then when he was finally finished and was looking forward to a nice and quiet white picket fence life with Ginny, his bitch of fiancée had to cheat on him?

With Draco fucking Malfoy, ferret extraordinaire! In THEIR bedroom!!!

Breathing in deeply to calm himself Harry packed the last of his belongings into the compartment suitcase that he had inherited from Moody. His next destination was the London branch of the Bank of England and after that his attorney in both muggle and Wizarding world.

After the war had been over, the Goblins had made him a persona no grata inside of Gringotts. They had handed over his money in form of pounds and gold bars and made it clear that for galleons he would have to send another person to exchange the money.  
Surprisingly, this was the best thing that ever happened to him, thanks to a few well placed confundus charms and extensive muggle family records, courtesy of the Ministry of Magic, the Potter family had become one of the oldest and wealthiest clients of the Bank of England. Thanks to his account manager that had a hand for investing and the fact that the gold prize was ridiculous at the moment, he nearly doubled his money in the first three years.

After the first high of defeating his lifelong nemesis had passed, Harry made it his mission to secure himself against any kind of screw over he could think of. He let his new flat in Diagon Ally be warded, divided his money between accounts, put a limit on the money that could be withdrawn, had all kinds of emergency potions on his body, three portkeys and two illegal extra wands, etc.  
But that he could be screwed over by his girlfriend didn’t occur to him, well now he knew better.

Wary of how envious people were of his financial status, Harry had installed an alternative female persona, who had her accounts in Switzerland and all the money made through the investments were securely collecting interest in the Swiss national bank under the name of Callisto Black, a wealthy sixty year old lady.

Harry had put a lot of work and effort into this alternate persona. She paid taxes, had a little chalet in the skiing region, bi monthly grocery delivery into the house – the groceries would be picked up by Dobby and used for him and Ginny. The Mrs. Black visits the bank four to six times a year to do investment and always talked about her daughter and her grandchildren in England when she visited her account manager. Said account manager, as well as his substitute were both heavily confounded and hit with several compulsions. Thanks to the confundus charm they wouldn’t ask specifics about her family until the compulsion started to work. The compulsion had been the most tricky bit of magic that Harry had done since the final battle, it was very extensive and when triggered would also trigger several other compulsions. Thanks to his Auror education, he had been rigorously taught in oblivating muggles, confounding them as well as the use of compulsions and making up plausible excuses.   
While this was normally the job of the Oblivators, there weren’t enough in the department after the war and so the new Auror batch had been taught how to handle these situations, luckily for Harry.

But back to the compulsion , to put it simple the Swiss account managers would believe the person with the right code phrase to be Callisto Blacks grandchild and would feel the urge to help him or her as much as possible, even if that meant illegally. Thanks to that Harry had infinite possibilities for a new identity, he wouldn’t even need to use magic for that, and that was the most important reason.   
Harry, a staunch believer of ‘constant vigilance’ was paranoid enough to keep his options open.  
So what if he had to run around dressed up as a female muggle? It could save his life or save him from his fans, whichever was more urgent at the moment, because really, who would expect Harry Potter to do his business under a female muggle alias?

The reason why Harry was so desperate to not have to use his wand was easy. On his final day as apprentice he was introduced to many practical gadgets of the ministry that would help and make his Auror job easier, including invisible cloaks, potions, portkeys, self updating maps etc as well as the toys that kept track of the Wizarding folk.  
One of these toys had made him wary of his magical signature. With this egg shaped instrument the ministry could track any magical signature that had been entered into the registry.  
What 99% of the wizards and witches didn’t know, was that the moment they entered the ministry, their wand signature and with that their magical signature were added to the ministry registry along with the name they told the elevator.  
The magical signature machine had been a rather ingenious development of one of Voldemort’s death eaters after the takeover of the ministry. It should have helped to track him down and Harry swore that until he found a way to disable his signal or at least find a way to block it he wouldn’t do anything stupid… or at least he would try to.

So after removing Ginny from his accounts and transferring another 30% of his fortune to Callisto Black and confounding the bank teller about the transaction he marched into the Clearwater law firm and changed his will in both worlds to exclude Ginevra.   
After that Harry put the flat in which they had lived, up for selling. Ginevra had 10 days to pack her things and move out. The rest of the furniture would be sold over the real estate manager that he had hired for the selling.

With a deep breath the Man-who-conquered flooed to his best friends house. Hermione and Ron had married shortly after the final battle and had already two children, the three year old Rose and the 4 month old Hugo.


	5. LOTR

Glanhelmion – light skinned

TA 2655 Glanhelmion is on the way back to Rivendell when he is thrown of his horse because of wolves – Morwen, a 22 year old, beautiful widow finds him – he stays with her and they have sex, on the next day he leaves to Rivendell – Morwen finds out that she is pregnant– she has a girl, Gweneth who she raises with help of her older brother and his wife, Morwen dies with 60 because of a nasty cold

Gweneth is raised from then on by her cousin Bris and later his sons until she is 90 (looks like 16)- she learns cooking and sewing as well as building traps and hunting and carving both wood and stone, she is taught how to swim after she nearly drowned in the river by one of the neighbors, who just secretly wanted to touch her and look at her when she was wet –she learns reading and writing in common from her cousins wife who learned it from her mother – after that she moves back into the house of her mother – it has been taken care of by the family –

she learns the family business stone carving, thanks to her long life she has a lot of practice and makes a killing for the family, her great cousin, lays half of the money they make of her products to the side to save it for her, when she 120 she wants to travel but isn’t sure how to tell them –

Carun knows that she wants to travel and shows her the money that they had saved for her in the last 60 years from the sellings of her products – she is thankful about this and takes a part with her – the rest she hides underground in a old rabbit whole with landmarks around it to find it again – the family cautions her not to show her ears and to keep the hood up while she travels –

she makes her way from the small village in the Ettenmoors over the Misty Mountains along the Andruin, she travels with caravans of merchants, there she learns Sindarin as well as Rhun and some southern dialects of common, so that she won’t have problems when she arrives in Gondor, they travel the whole summer and arrive in fall in the runes of Osgiliath and then travel to Minas Tirith, Gwen explores the city during the winter, she rents a small room in the second ring and carves small stone figures to sell, she also creates a chess game that she sells to a noble man in the fifth ring, earning more money in one day then she had in 3 years while working for her family, she uses the other winter months to create a small model of Minas Tirith, it is has a diameter from 1 foot six (50 cm) and is nearly as high, to be able to transport it Gwen buys a donkey in Minas Tirith to carry her things, on her last day she buys an expensive carpet with the white city as an emblem in the last ring before she makes her way with the caravan back up the Anduin.

They travel to Edoras, where Gwen buys herself a horse, in the cities on the way she sells the little stone figures that she has made to rich humans, this brings her a very decent income - she stays two months in Edoras, creating a model of the city, just like Minas Tirith, there she also watches how the people build their homes partially into the stone, just like in Minas Tirith, Gwen is fascinated by this, she wants to try this for herself, buying better equipment to work on stones – she leaves with the next caravan, when they reach the gap of Rohan they are attacked by orcs,

Gweneth can only flee because she always stays on the edge of the caravan, she can’t take the smell of the unwashed humans and animals, she flees over the plain to the Misty mountains, she travels in the mountains because she had heard about Fangorn wood while she traveled to Minas Tirith, during one night the donkey made himself loose and wandered away from her, she finds him near the top of a mountain grazing in the field before a giant cave system, the grass field is an three fourths surrounded by high stone cliffs and walls and is big enough to easily contain 20 horses without them bumping into each other.

she stays nearly 3 weeks, exploring the place, this would be ideal for carving she thinks but because it is already late in the summer she makes her way back into Enedwaith where she follows the North South road and meets a caravan with which she travels to Bree, because it is already so close to winter she stays in Bree with the hobbits, learning about their way of building houses and listens to their stories, she enjoys this and also makes stone figures for them as well as a stone plate for her about the layout of Bree.

In the spring she makes her way back to her home town only to find it raised to the ground, travelling to the next village she is informed that nobody survived the attack of the orcs and that those had become more frequent – Gwen spends a week in her destroyed home and mourns her dead family, she collects small unbroken stone products that hadn’t been destroyed as well as the hidden money and makes her way back to the misty mountains, on her way she buys food, especially grounded wheat to last easily through summer and the following winter, she has now a horse and two donkeys to carry her stuff

she arrives in the begin of summer at the cave system in the Misty Mountains, the first things she builds is a stable not far away from the cave system – at first it was so that she could stay with the animals in the winter and be protected from the cold through their body heat - she carves it into an already there cave and builds compartments for her three companions with smaller brick sized stones and mortar that she produces thanks to the small spring not far away, for the floor she transports soft earth from the lower mountains up – for the horse drops she designates a medium sized cleft close to the stables, she secures it with a stone wall around it – to stop wild animals from coming to close to her home and the horses she connects the natural defenses with thick stone walls with only one entrance that barricaded with stones and dead stumps until she found a better way

her food is hung from the cave ceiling to prevent vermin from reaching it, and her things are stored in a small side cave.

Throughout the summer she collects the dead wood from the beginning of the Fangorn forest as well as the mountains, she uses that to stock up her supplies for the winter, and also to build a door for the stable and window shutters. Over the compartments she builds a hay loft to store the hay for the winter and also as her sleeping place, she has become used to the smell of the animals and it doesn’t bother her so much anymore.

In late the summer she harvests the long grass in the plains of Edenwaith and dries it on the stones so that her animals would have hay in the winter- she stores it in the hay loft around her bed – which further insulated the area.

The colder it gets the more Gwen realizes that in the caves the temperature doesn’t change, after some trial and error she finds the reason, in one cave a part of an hot spring is exposed and the water that runs through the stone heats the walls, she moves her bed into the neighboring cave and enjoys the warmth from now on –but she isn’t the only one – she has a problem with rats and other small animals – she puts up traps to get rid of them - with stones and mortar she nearly closes said cave and uses an old carpet as door divider to keep the warmth from escaping, she has a pretty good eyesight but she needs a candle in the completely dark room to see things, that is also on her list of things she had to buy before winter comes, as well as books and more furniture – she has the old carpet affixed with nails on one side and a plank on the other that has to be taken away before she can leave the room - it keeps the animals from getting into her bedroom

In late august she makes her way to the closest human village that was nearly two days travelling away, she spends a part of her money on good quality cloth, two books, a case of candles as well as dried meat and an extra pair shoes and sells a few figurines and stone bowls.

She makes her way back and in November it starts to snow, she has to use a wood piece as shovel for the first few days until she carves herself a real one. The animals enjoy the snow and when they are let out – she shovels the snow on one side of the free field and when she needs water she carries the snow in her three buckets into the cave and waits until the room temperature has melted it.

Her daily routine begins with snow shoveling and letting the animals out, after which she shovels the animal droppings into the cleft and fills up the feeding troth for the day, after that she makes herself something to eat, most of the time she bakes bread for a week in advance and eats this throughout the day with apples and meat intermixed- the day she either uses to explore the already there caves or work on carving them, she has a pretty good idea where the hot water runs and she is searching for a way to use it for all her rooms, when she needs to use the toilet she uses a designated bucket for it, but she is not happy with that solution, the smell gets on her nerves, and she doesn’t want to go outside every time she needs to use it.

The first room she finishes is a small side room close to what area she has designated as kitchen, she has carved shelves into the stone walls and this room is very far away from both the hot springs and the cave entrance, Gwen makes the room closeable with a carved wood door, she had done this back at home when they had to change a door and was pretty used to it, after that she stored her food in this room, protected from vermin, wetness and warm air that would spoil it.

Her kitchen area is the next thing that she finishes, with perfectly carved stones she builds herself an oven as well as carved shelves and a fire pit to put a tripod over. Gwen takes her time, she figures that this would be her home for a very long time and she wasn’t in a hurry, after all she also took her time with her carvings and this was her new project.

During her exploring of the caves close to abyss falling from the backside of the mountain Gwen carves to deep and catches a side arm of the warm water spring, the water starts running over the cave floor and in her panic to stop the water from flooding her living areas she makes a whole into the outer wall so that the water would run down on the outside of the mountain. After she solved this problem Gwen figured that she now at least had a room for washing herself, in Minas Tirith and Edoras she had heard about the giant baths the nobles and the steward had and how they enjoyed a long soak in the warm water –Gwen giggled at the thought she didn’t even need to warm the water, she just needed to carve the bath tub – to stop the water and work in peace she carved a stopper out of stone to plug the hole while she carved the bathtub into the ground, she used mortar to close the hole on the outside wall. The bath tub was so big that four of her sized could easily swim without touching each other, she made it so deep that she wouldn’t be able to touch the ground standing up and on the side she carved stairs so that she would walk into the water and then be able to sit down, on the other side of the pool she made also a sitting area, to drain the pool she made a hole in the thickest part of the outer wall so that the water wouldn’t drag the stone with it into the abyss.– right at the bottom of the pool – to guide the water from the side arm she craved a water rail in the floor and covered it with a stone plate to prevent spilling, on the beginning of the pool she put another stopper into the pipe to control the water amount.

The covered water rail gave Gwen the idea of how to heat her home – she spent most of the winter experimenting with different stones that would conduct the heat the most, through a chance she found that certain mortar out of burned chalk that she found close to a big old Vulcan emergence could transfer the heat a lot better than the stones, with the right mixture and grounded stone dust she could even change the color of the mortar, and when the mixture was thin enough it would even out without any help.

She used the rest of the winter to carve the separate caves into giant halls, after all if she didn’t need to worry about heating them she could make them as grand as she wanted, the cave ceilings were most of the time twice her height, she had to use ladders for those, to reach up – the walls were made straight on the side and the ceiling was u-shaped, Gweneth didn’t want to start with decorating the walls as long as she hadn’t the heating perfected, after all it was very cold in the winter and just because this winter had been quite mild didn’t mean that it would be the same next year– she carves the rails and connects the rooms with small holes for the rails – the rails run in a circle through all caves and run then back into the spring, a bit deeper down, the last rail parts to connect to the spring aren’t carved yet.

in spring after the snow had melted she made her way down into the plains to stock up on food and more candles – Gwen had decided that she would work on her home in the winter and the spring and summer she would use to travel and see the world – she spend the spring and the summer exploring the blue mountains and the shire, always careful to not show her ears – she bought books and learned how to read Sindarin from an old merchant who wanted one of her stone figurines

In the summer she returned to the Misty Mountains to prepare the mortar plates to hide the water rails in the floor – after some consideration Gwen also filled the cave floors with mortar to make them more even, the rails she protected with old wood and stones which she took out and even had to carve parts out after the mass had dried, she spent 4 days outside her home to let the caves dry completely, sleeping on the hay loft which was only partly filled yet –

Gwen only glued the mortar plates on the even cave ground, there where the rails ran she left the stones movable, should something be stuck somewhere she could easily open the floor to remove it –

besides preparing for the winter she worked the whole August on the floor, punctual to the first snow she carved the connection to the hot spring, first the one that would bring the water back into the spring and then the one leading into her home and put the final plates into place – the cave entrance was now also nearly completely closed, only a double door led now into the open, Gweneth was especially proud of that door, she had build it so it could only be opened from the inside, should she ever need to open it from the outside she had to climb up a part of the mountain and take a small side entrance that was hidden by stones– the only disadvantage about living in a cave was the fact that there wasn’t any day light – gwen swore herself that she would install glass windows on the steep side of the mountain so to not give orcs and other dark creatures a easy way into her home.

Gwen uses the winters following to experiment with columns, thanks to the mortar mixture that she makes out of the stone dust and small and bigger rocks she has no trouble with creating them, she just lays stones in a round or angular form and then poured the mortar on it, this she repeated until she had reached the height she wanted or the ceiling, with this she reinforced the ceilings and could carve higher and make herself a second level. She also installs wall cupboards for her growing collection of books and nick nacks – her models of the different cities also grow, she includes Helms Deep as well as Ryutokai, the capital of Rhun – they have columns on the walls of the biggest room in her home

Gwen breaks purposely through the outer wall on the second level and creates a balcony with a stone balustrade – she buys glass windows in Adorn, that lies between the Agren river and the Adorn river and is rumored to have the best glass makers of middle earth, she transports them to her home and installs a giant glass window along the balcony, with only a small door to lead outside, this makes the whole room suddenly very friendly and Gwen enjoys this so much that she makes window holes throughout the summer and fills them all in late August – she buys also window shutters to protect the glass from strong storms. She installs a wooden bench in front of the giant window wall as well as a few pots with herbs in them, she wants to see if she can grow plants inside – to protect the glass she binds wood planks together and stores the screen on the second level – during a storm she would bind the rope onto the balustrade, make sure the wood covered the glass and bind the other end on the door knob inside to give the glass maximal coverage.

All over the caves she installed candle shelves and small coal fire pits to lighten the rooms.

In the next 10 years she completes only 7 rooms, the great hall with the second story and the balcony, her kitchen, the pantry that was expanded in those years, her bathing room, her bed room that she also expanded a bit and adorned with a glass window, a storage room for her completed carving work both stone and wood and her work room where incomplete things were. These were also the rooms which were heated –Gwen was contend with her life she travel half of the year through places she had never seen before and then spend the other part of the year working on her home and pet projects, she had to buy new donkeys and a horse because her old ones died – she buys in every city things that catch her eyes, like beautiful wood chests or tapestries, she even started to buy jewelry now that she had saved so much money and was earning more, her work was pretty popular wherever she went and if she didn’t have enough with her she could easily carve new stuff of the materials she found on the way, till now she had luck she had only been attacked four times in her life and she got away, but slowly more and more orcs attack the caravans and towns and Gwen is worried about them finding her home.

So she spent the next summer reinforcing the natural defenses of her home and carved the natural ladders leading to her home out of the stone. She also explored further into the caves and installed an escape, it wasn’t visible from below and you needed a ladder to climb out of it.

Gwen also stocked up on the non perishable food that would last her months if not years and started to grow carrots and other vegetables on the sunny part of the second level, in each window still she put a potted plant, be it food or herb, when she was away she would just put them on the balcony and keep some seeds in a dry place to regrow them if they should have been destroyed

During her last travel she picked up some self defense tips from the warriors that accompanied the caravan, at first they didn’t want to show her because she was a woman but reluctantly agreed after she told them that she traveled alone, they also showed her how to use a bow, which she took to like a fish to water

During the winter she finally started with the other caves leading deeper into the mountain – the biggest hall close to her was nearly 200 meter long and 70 meter wide cave was her next project, she wanted to build a dining hall like the one in Minas Tirith, thanks to a friend of hers that she had traveled with along the Andruin she had seen the vast room in which the Stewart ate with his guests and celebrated big feasts

It took Gwen another 8 years to complete her work to be satisfied, like with the other caves she had used floor heating and built giant pillars in the middle to reinforce the ceiling which was also covered with a mortar coating the floor was a light greenish color, Gwen had experiment with chalk, amazonite and aventurine while she mixed the mortar, she found it very pretty especially after she covered the walls with a chalk coating. – here she also installed windows, every 6 feet to be exact and there were three rows over each other, to give the cave a better static she build extra columns to the ceiling between the windows to reinforce the cave -she decorated the columns with small carvings, each one different – in the middle and the side where some big stones had fallen from the ceiling Gwen had used them to carve live sized horses out of them, one even reared on his back feet, she had to leave the stone between the legs and part of the tail because the statue would have broken

After she finished with the biggest cave she concentrated herself back onto her “living mountain” she furnished it further with wood furniture and small and bigger wood statutes, showing the Ents she had watched moving in Fangorn as well as humans in their traditional clothes all over middle earth, to not forget the differences she wrote the year as well as the region and the occupation of the person she had carved.

During a longer extended trip through Rhun she picked up a vast amount of silk and lacquered combs and hair pieces that she found absolutely enthralling, she also bought jade necklaces and rings of silver and gold with a lot of precious stones, she used all the money she made on the trip to Rhun as well as the money she took with her, on the way back she carves again to have some money to spend – she arrives in late summer and has barely time to stock up on hay and food for herself. She uses the winter to sort through her things and stores them in giant chests she has bought throughout the years – she carves another two caves beside her bedroom into usable rooms, one she fills with her wardrobe while the other is left empty for now.

On the second floor she uses stone busts to present the bought jewelry and tone shelves to lie down her other precious belongings-

In the last 10 years Gwen has changed the single bed in her room into a double with luxurious sheets and a mattress made out of only cloth instead of the straw filled ones and warm beddings for which she now intended to make silk sheets.

Because of the dust that had accumulated throughout the two years she hadn’t been there she made a big cleaning week out of the new week and opened all the windows to let some fresh air into her home.

During the winter she walked deeper and deeper into the caves until she found after days a second entrance, the cave nearly led to the end of the Misty Mountains close to the end of the Fangorn forest. Having marked the way through the confusing labyrinth back up to her home she found that it only took her 6 hours of straight walking to reach her home what normally would have taken her 4 days at least walking through the mountains.

Happy over this fact Gwen spend most of the winter making the way as easy as possible and closing the entrance nearly completely and making it look like the cave entrance gave in

Because the winter hadn’t begun down in the plain yet Gwen was able to walk to the next village and buy herself a cart – she used it to move stones more easily out of the way and to give the winding path the right width – she used mortar again to make the way as even as possible, going as far as to bring the pony that she had bought instead of the donkeys because they were a lot more well behaved through her living area into the long cave to move the cart – it took a lot of gentle words and a firm hand but it did what she told him and after a few hours it calmed down – Gwen’s work was so a lot easier and she could work faster, throughout the winter she changed every other day between the ponies, her horse being too easily scared to do that work – Gwen made note where she would have to reinforce the ceilings so she could walk without fear of the ceiling coming down

The next thing she installed where fire pits to light the way and after that she changed the entrance on the mountain so that she didn’t have to lead the horse through her home but could lead them straight from the stables into the cave, this had the benefit for the horses that the stable was now also heated through the warmth in the floor.

Gwen nearly spent the next 50 years working on the bigger halls and the path leading from one side of the Misty Mountains to the other side.

she had been feeling lonely 2 decades ago and had build herself guests rooms with double beds like hers and even expensive sheets out of silk, a walk in wardrobe and a chest to the side, some shelves and everyone of them had a window, a beautifully carved chair and – the closet only 15 meters away from her living room, and then the rooms where aligned, the corridor having a fire pit after every second room and a window after every fourth. It was in the other direction of the Great Hall

she also made more baths, to be exact a giant bathing pool that nearly was a big as her living room, this one was filled the whole time and the water moved from the higher levels into the pool to heat the levels below, only when she was leaving for a longer time she closed the pipe with a plug to prevent the water from running through the corridors should something happen – it was parted in the middle by a wall that was a little bit higher than 8 feet and went into the water for at least 2 feet. On one side where figurines of males and on the other side where figurines of females, more or less endowed, short and taller etc. the adjourning cave was also parted in the middle and would serve as changing room before and after the bath

Gwen was now 197 nearly 200 years old when she was working on the final columns to reinforce the ceiling on the side leading to the Fangorn forest when she heard the shouting of orcs, terrified Gwen stood still for a second before she moved slowly to the small entrance hole left to close it up against these beasts, when she caught site of the scene before her.   
The orcs were searching for someone that was clear, and when she turned her head and looked into Fangorn she understood whom they were looking for, a dark haired elf was breathing hard and swallow behind a tree, leaning against it holding his side that was bleeding heavily, Gwen always had avoided elves because frankly she was intimidated by their beauty and grace, and in her opinion she was neither beautiful nor graceful but right this moment she couldn’t leave him to die, so she waited until the orcs had moved into the other direction and climbed through the hole into the evening sun, it was late in February and uncommon cold, in her mountain garden was still snow nearly two meters high.

She must have made a sound because suddenly the head of the elf snapped in her direction, she winked him to follow her and with a quick glance back to the orcs he did exactly that.   
Gwen slipped through the hole and the elf followed her even if a lot more clumsy then her and breathing hard.

inside Gwen hastily put stones in front of the hole and then took the elves hand with a finger to her lips she led him to her cart and told him to sit – with a quick glance to the wound she could already see the green shimmer of the poison, wincing she searched through her supplies, since she had been bitten by a poisonous spider a few years back and had barely made it to her herbs in time she always carried a ready supply of the most important ones with her around, she gave him a few to chew and then broke the rest in half and pressed them with a clean linen against his wound – she then told him to lie back on the cart while she moved in front to her pony and led it through the darkness, only a mile later she dared to light a torch to lead the way – thanks to the reinforced path it took them only 5 hours to reach her home, there she helped the feverish elf into her guestroom, this came now in handy, only she pulled the silk sheets of and used easily washable cotton while her guest was resting for a bit in her living room and drinking a hastily brewed tea out of the herbs that she always used against poison – having completed her task she led him into the bed and helped him undress his shoes and shirt as well as the leather armguards – she left his pack on the side table for later use and covered him with blankets, he was out like a light, even closing his eyes during sleep, which concerned her greatly – she took his clothes to wash and mend later then she prepared a salve to use on the wound and a water basinet.

While the elf slept she gave him a quick sponge bath, turning red when she traced his muscles but steeling herself, she hadn’t felt the urge to look at a man before, even the good looking Rohirim didn’t do it for her but now an elf? Figures. She then took the cloth and the leaves away from the wound and washed the wound as good as she could before putting on the salve and redressing the wound – Gwen was glad that she had learned about the different medicines in the different human cultures of middle earth, this had saved her and countless humans their life when she used it on them and her, she had found out that she was extremely vulnerable to poisons be it from animals or plants, if this part came from her elven heritage her house guest was a poor sod.

It took 3 days until the elves was conscious again, she had taken careful heed to keep him hydrated and had pressed a wet linen fabric to his mouth every hour and forces small parts of tea and water down his throat – when he awoke while she was redressing his wound again she at first didn’t notice, he was taking her in, her hair that was braided in a human way out of her face, her pointy ears, her glowing skin, but not as ethereal like other elleth.

When he cleared his throat she looked like a deer caught in a storm, big clear sapphire eyes in a lovely face with high cheekbones and reddish blonde hair, reddish? He had never seen any elf with reddish hair, brown yes, blonde of course, black, and every color between, but never ever had he encountered a red haired elf.

“Mae govannen my name is Elrohir.” “My name is Gweneth, but call me Gwen” and she was back at work, she had a slight northern accent, where was she from? And Gweneth? He had never heard of any elleth carrying this name. Strange.

She finishes and then asks him if he wants to get up a bit and eat in the living room or in bed, Elrohir is eager to get up and she leads him into the living room, he likes the beautiful carved room and looks around while he is seated at the exquisite carved wooden table on a equally stunning bench –

Gwen brings him a strong broth, which she had learned the recipe from a nice old lady in the Blue Mountains – he thanks her and after they two have eaten he asks her where they are and she tells him in her home in the Misty mountains, he is astonished and asks her from which elf enclave she came and why she was living here, she hhms around than tells him that she is from no enclave that she is half elven and never had met her father, she was raised by humans – Elrohir is stunned he didn’t expect that – a half elf, a female at that and she lived alone, - he asks her how old she is and she tells him that she going to be 200 soon – he is even more stunned because she is the youngest elf that he had ever encountered, with the exception of his sibling Arwen who was 220, Gwen is shy and sweet, after he asks more of her life she just shrugs and tells him how she had spent it until now and that she didn’t even know the name of her father other than that is started with G and that he had been on the way to Rivendell, Elrohir tells her in exchange about his life and his siblings, when he asks her if she didn’t get lonely she just shrugs and looks at her hands – Elrohir invites her to Rivendell and she just smiles this cute shy smile that leaves him breathless.

They go to bed and the following day a snow storm begins – Gwen tells him that he should at least stay for the next few days until the snow storm is over or better he should stay until March where the snow would slowly recede, he agrees reluctantly and tells her that he had traveled with two other elves back from seeing a caravan safely to Edoras, both now dead, and was on his way back to Rivendell when they had been attacked by orcs.

She just nods and listens to him talk about Rivendell and his adventures with his brother and his younger sister and how she is close to her age, at this Gwen’s eyes lighten up.

She shows him her carvings and the great hall before she leads him to the bathing room and shows him how to use the water, he tells her that finds the heated floor ingenious and that they would need this also in Rivendell she just laughs, the following week he explores the halls Gwen had created and is fascinated, before he had seen this he had felt repulsed by the thought of living in caves like a dwarf but now after seeing the beautiful carved place he feels different, they use the time they spend together for Elrohir to show her some of the etiquette that is used by elves and how to differentiate between the different cutlery, Gwen is excited like a child and enjoys learning stuff without being covert.

In the evening while Elrohir reads some of her books she carves his figure first into a small figurine and then into a bigger one that was a feet high

10 days later when the weather gets better Elrohir makes his way to Rivendell with Gwen’s horse and with the promise to visit as soon as possible.

He arrives in Rivendell 3 weeks later and is welcomed by his worried family, he tells them about the ambush and how he was saved by Gweneth, he tells Elrond about her half elven status and her home


	6. HPxOP

_Soulmates – Shanks and Marco somehow meet up with each other on an island – meet an old hag with a divining devil fruit – somehow Shanks does her a favor and so she allows him a peek on his soulmate –shanks of course finds this funny but doesn’t really believe in it and says to go ahead – ben, yasopp and lucky roo are with him as always, Marco somehow tagged along after Shanks convinced him to party with his crew – the rest of the crew are already in the bar – the old hag uses the water surface of a bowl to show him his soulmate – she looks closer and then tells marco to also come here – his soulmate is also in the picture – and because she doesn’t have to extend more energy its fine if he also takes a peek -_

“Well of course everybody has a soulmate! There are not always born at the same time or even same continent, but those that do find each other are very happy even if they can only spend a short time together.”

“Huh, so how do you know that this person is your soulmate?” Shanks asked to humor the old lady with the many pearly necklaces.

“Why you will feel inexplicable drawn to that person and also don’t be surprised if your soulmate is your own gender, after all it’s not a decision of the soul to make as what that person is reborn again.”

Shanks, Benn and Marco looked at each other and then grinned, the old hag had clearly lost her marbles.

“Anyway do you want to take a look Captain?”

Said captain grinned broadly “Why not?” and winked at his first mate who just hid his head in his hand. The old lady filled a semi larger bowl with water and made the surface ripple with her hand

“Hhm,… oh how interesting! You with the pineapple hair,… yes you come here, it seems as if your two soulmates are very close. You may also take a look, after all this doesn’t cost me extra energy.”

Curious and slightly annoyed by the nickname Marco wandered to Shanks side and also gazed into the water waiting for what the woman was up to, and suddenly the water surface turned darker, before it became lighter again and then there was a picture of two women, who climbed up a house wall, using the façade as only help.

“Captain, you see the brown haired one with the wild curls? That’s your soulmate and the black haired one is yours pineapple head.”

Shanks and Marco followed the two female figures as they climbed into a window on the third floor of a mansion and vanished behind a side door when they heard giggling.

_The two young women held their breaths while the obese house owner walked by their hiding place with a blonde thin whore on his arm, they vanished in the next door to the left and locked said door. Hanare and Hisana looked at each other and gagged. Now that was an unpleasant sight! Getting their composure back the two hurried down the corridor and into the last room, the study. After carefully closing the door behind them, Hisana turned and asked half loud grinning into the room._

_“Now if you were an old, fat rich guy, where would you hide all your treasures?”_

_And Hanare beside her smirked back and both answered at the same time “Behind the dogs.”_

_Giggling slightly Hisana danced to the floor long picture of two purebred Briss dogs, and really the painting was movable and behind it was a steel door with a 10 digit number lock._

_Hisana whistled silently “Well, you can say what you want about the old fatso, but at least he is security is not too shabby.”_

_“Can you open it?”_

_“Is the sea blue?” came the cheeky reply back from the black haired woman who then began to fiddle with her tools at the door._

_Bored, the brown haired woman looked around the office. Her eyes widened when she saw a certain book on the last shelf on her right._

_“See, it wasn’t a problem,… Hanare?” Hisana called her friend when she didn’t answer_

_“That greedy old bastard!!! I can’t believe it, I thought all copies were destroyed!” said woman exclaimed._

_“Huh?”_

_“This is the last known copy of the original treaty between the Marijos and the Alabasta Kingdom, I saw it once in the Knowledge tree before Ohara was destroyed! And that incompetent bastard has it in a room where the humidity attacks the old pages!!!”_

_“So,… we are taking it?”_

_“Oh yes; and all the other valuables that this man has!” came the growled reply._

_“You always get so vindictive when it comes to books.” Hisana smirked and the motioned Hanare to move into the save room.  
Hisana looked at her watch “Okay we have 15 minutes until the fall of the tide begins, so let’s get to it!” _

_The two moved the gold bars and jewelry that wouldn’t be destroyed by the saltwater into big rough duffel bags which then were fixed on a buoy each. Hisana opened the window to the sea side and careful glanced down, nobody was in sight. She then put together iron pipes that she took out of the bottom of both their bags and fixed a hook on one end. With careful precision she lowered one bag after the other close to the water surface where she dropped them. After checking that all 5 buoys were still there she helped Hanare to pack the books and maps into the now nearly empty bags. Hisana looked amused as Hanare even took down the paintings in the room and rolled them carefully and put them into the bags, normally she wasn’t that thorough with a heist. After finally finishing with the packing, Hisana moved over to Hanare and held out the skimpy blue uniform the maids of the house wore._

_“Now to the fun part!” she grinned while Hanare groaned._

_Pulling the uniform over their other clothes and hiding their hair under wigs, they moved in a normal pace through the house without anybody batting an eyebrow. When they passed the library, Hanare couldn’t resist she gave Hisana a hand sign and after a careful look around she slipped into the empty room and started pilfering the shelves for rare books. Hanare filled an extra duffel bag full with those. They dropped their bags down another window on the wood side of the mansion over the fence and then walked out of the main front door with a nod and a small greeting to the guards that man the door._  
Having rounded the corner they jump behind the next bush, got rid of the wigs and maid clothes and walked leisurely to the backside of the mansion fence to pick up the dropped bags.  
Two streets down they repacked the stolen goods in shopping bags and walked to the port and boarded the cruise ship there, greeting the captain and a part of the crew while doing that.   
After entering the cabin they both grinned at each other.

_“Aren’t we awesome?” Hisana asked._

_“We still have to collect the gold, but yes we are!” Hanare’s dry answer came from her side of the bed._

_“Yes, yes slave driver.” Hisana joked while she sat down beside her friend. “How does it feel, this was our last job for the next few years.”_

_Hanare sighed and said “I think I’m going to miss it, but on the other side we are fulfilling our dreams, so I’m really excited.”_

_“Yeah me too, I will call the rest of the team tomorrow evening when we are in San Faldo.”_

_“By the way where are we meeting that friend of yours?” Hisana harrumphed_

_“He is certainly no friend of mine, but Law is a decent enough doctor and even though he is a pirate he will keep his word and won’t steal our treasures, after all he wants those sea maps that I promised,… and really he knows better than to double cross a fellow surgeon… We are meeting him at the Sabaody Archipelago, we need to get the ship bubble coated there.”_

_Humming understandingly Hanare turned on her stomach and opened the book that was lying on her night stand._

_Smiling Hisana turned to Hanare again “I’m really excited about the ship, I wonder how it looks like,… anyway thank god we have sea stone coating on the keel, I so don’t want to deal with Sea Kings and other nice beasties.”_

_“Hisana?”_

_“Yes?”_

_“You are babbling.”_

_“Oh,… sorry I’m just nervous.”_

_Hanare turned her head to her friend “I know, just calm down, everything is going to be fine, you will be able to open your clinic in the New World and I will build a new Ohara.”_

And with that the two women slowly disappeared in the depths of the water bowl. Shanks and Marco were slightly speechless, they hadn’t really thought that the old hag would deliver anything concrete, they now knew how the two looked like and even had their names!

Shanks composed himself and asked surprisingly serious, “How and where are we going to meet them?”

“How should I know? I just show you who it is, the rest is up to you.” And with that the old woman packed her things together and slowly vanished between the houses of Westeira.  
Both Marco and Shanks were surprisingly pensive after what they had seen.


	7. OP

**So this is a darkish Oneshot about the revenge of a woman that Blackbeard crossed. Because I feel vindictive tonight and you really don’t need to be super powerful to kill a person even if it looks like that in the OP Fandom. Mentions of rape and murder.**

**Oneshot**

The pirates stared at the barely 5,5 tall young woman that climbed onto the deck. She had slightly curly medium long hair and brown eyes and tanned skin. Nothing especially exotic but beautiful in a girl next door way. She looked average in every way, from her sensible travel clothes to her hair cut and the worn shoes.

Her smile had something brittle and horrible to it and Marco was honestly not sure if he wanted to know while she smiled like this.

“You said you had something for us.” Marco finally said when pops didn’t say anything to their guest.

The girl nodded and placed the box she had been carrying in a duffel bag in front of her.

“I think out of all the people in world you probably deserve his head and the fruit the most.”

Marco relaxed even more while the pirates around him tensed, or at least the more inexperienced tensed, they had not yet learned that tensed muscles made it harder to move in an instant.

“His head?” Marco prompted the strange woman in front of them, he didn’t take her for a bounty hunter, or hell even a fighter but stranger things had happened.

“Marshall Teach’s,” she elaborated, her eyes looked dully at him and Marco had to suppress a shudder at her gaze.

“YOU? Killed him?” an incredulous voice asked from somewhere behind Marco.

The girl simply shrugged her shoulders.

“How the hell did you defeat him?” another asked from his right.

At this the face was pulled into a mirthless grin when she fixated the general direction from which the question came.

“I put a paralytic in his pie and the drowned him in twenty centimeter high water.”

Outraged sounds came from around the deck.

“How could you.” One of them shouted in disbelief, clearly horrified “Don’t you have any honor?”

The woman’s grin became even more horrible “He raped my best friend to death… in front of me, her husband and four year old daughter, both who were killed afterwards… so no, I wasn’t feeling very honorable.”

Somewhere behind him Marco heard retching and he himself wasn’t feeling very well… there was nothing that he could say to that and he really didn’t want to think about what she did NOT say about her ordeal.

“Well then I’m off.” The woman said hollowly before she carefully placed the devil fruit that had started all of this on the wooden box that contained Teach’s head and slowly walked back to the railing.

Marco looked up to pops who hadn’t said anything throughout the whole time, his expression was carved out of stone and he was only watching the clearly traumatized and broken woman leave the Moby Dick. Nobody tried to stop her.

 


	8. HP Squib

##  Chapter 1

The life of Seraphim O’Connell was for her first eighteen years not a happy one.

When she was younger Seraphim had liked to think that in looks she took after her red headed, blue eyed and devastatingly handsome father, while her personality was closer aligned with that of her mother, who had always been calm and level headed.

Since her earliest memories Seraphim could remember loud fights, accusations and broken furniture as well as the knowledge that as soon as her father’s head started to turn red, she should return to her room as fast and quietly as possible and wait until the storm had gone by. It hadn’t been an ideal situation but it still was bearable, after some time apart from each other her father’s temper always cooled down and he and her mother made up.

Her family life had then taken a turn from bad to worse when her father lost his job and channeled his temper into beating on his twelve year old daughter and wife.

Instead of leaving him and starting over somewhere new, her mother started drink and gradually lost interest in her surroundings sometime after Seraphim turned thirteen. Seraphim learned very fast that if she wanted to escape the beatings in her abusive home she had to spend as much time as possible away from it. As a result her grades sky rocked, she had always been pretty smart but with all the extra time spent in school and the nearest library Seraphim was easily the top student of her year.   
That was probably also the reason why her social life went downhill, most of the few friends she had had before were either jealous of her grades or weren’t interested in somebody who did nothing else but studying. So Seraphim buried herself in the two things that had never betrayed her, books and her imagination. Especially science fiction and fantasy were her two big loves, she would sit in her regular place behind two big book cases and dream about becoming a space explorer or becoming a witch and explore Hogwarts and the Wizarding world.

After Seraphim turned seventeen, her situation back at home grew even worse, if she had had the choice she even would have spent her nights away from the hated house. She now either returned through the rarely locked back door and avoided notice through creeping up the stairs, or took the more direct way via a ladder and her bedroom window on the second floor. The only problem with that was that the ladder was right in front of the bathroom window on the first floor. Like this she often didn’t see hide or hair of her parents for weeks, which she was thankful for, hearing them shouting and breaking things was enough.

Seraphim had a plan, as soon as she graduated she would be out of here, she knew she couldn’t go to college, at least not right out of school, she would have to earn the money for the tuition, but there was no way she would stay a day longer than she had to. Her birthday was a week before graduation, which suited her just fine, she would have enough time to go through her stuff and decide what she wanted to take with her. Since she had been fifteen she had worked part time during school time and full time through the summer in a Sure Start Children Centre. At first she had saved the money that she hadn’t spend on necessary things like clothes in a holed out old romance book before she had invested in a cheap safe and had moved it into the old garden shed that was rusting in the back of the property, should the house catch on fire, her money would be safe.

In her opinion the year of her graduation went by even slower than the years before, in her anticipation of moving out, Seraphim had started to search for a cheap flat somewhere close to the Centre. Her employer had assured her that she could change her hours to full time as soon as she had graduated and Seraphim was looking forward to a nice quiet life without her parents. So when two days before her birthday a flat became free Seraphim couldn’t believe her luck. It was a one room flat on the second floor with a tiny kitchenette and a small bathroom, but it was cheap and it would be hers alone and so she agreed to take it and signed the renting contract two days after her birthday. The day between her birthday and the contract signing the red head had set up an account for herself and then bought her first own phone. Her mother had given her the old Nokia that had belonged to her along with the contract when Seraphim had been thirteen and she had received a new one from her company, this was also the last gift Seraphim had received from her, after that her parents had forgotten her birthday each year.

As soon as she had received the key and had paid the first three rents in advance Seraphim started to move her things into her new flat. The blue eyed girl started with her clothes and all the things that weren’t visible when you entered her room, she wanted to keep her parents oblivious as long as possible, so that she just had to say goodbye to them without facing the consequences of their fury. The evening before her graduation Seraphim packed her last things together and then vanished for the last time through her bedroom window and down the ladder. That night was the first time she slept on the mattress she had purchased the day before, she had never been so happy.

The next day Seraphim was downright chipper, she ate breakfast on the second hand table and chair combo before she put on her graduation outfit and went to school. After all the speeches were given and she received her diploma Seraphim walked out of the school for the last time in her life. With a big smile she walked home and opened the front door. She knew that both her parents would be there at that day. Instead of tiptoeing through the hall and escaping into her room, Seraphim walked into the living room and in front of the TV.

“What the hell do you want?” her dad growled.

“I just wanted to inform you that I have graduated and that I am leaving this place.” Seraphim stated in a calm voice.

“Yeah, whatever.” Kreios muttered while he went back to look at the TV, her mother hadn’t even reacted.

Shrugging her shoulders Seraphim left, she felt hurt over the fact that they didn’t seem to care even a little bit. Breathing in deeply she allowed herself some tears to roll down her face before she wiped them away and returned to her new home.

She was finally able to start living.

The next four months Seraphim fell into a routine and enjoyed her new live until the last weekend in October. The weather had been funky for the last few days and most people had stayed in. Seraphim herself looked forward to a calm weekend in front of the TV or with a good book. She had used her free time since her graduation to search through bargain deals and second hand shops and had furnished her flat somewhat; it now looked cozy and lived in.

Seraphim was just getting up for a light snack when the storm was directly over her home town. Suddenly the whole building was plunged into darkness; unsure what to do Seraphim stood in the middle of the room to wait if the electricity would return without prompting.

When the light came back on everything was different.

##  Chapter 2

When the light came back on she was not in her flat anymore.

Seraphim knew that didn’t make sense but this wasn’t her flat. The size was similar and some of her favorite books were also there but the furniture and accessories were different. Not in a bad way, no it looked a lot like something that she would have put together but this wasn’t her home. Before she could do anything else but gape at the things around her, a number of sheets fluttered out of nowhere into the room and landed neatly on the coffee table.

Now a normal person would have probably run away, or tried to alert somebody that something wasn’t right and would have promptly be locked away in a psychiatry, but Seraphim O’Connell wasn’t exactly normal. She had early on life learned that you couldn’t rely on anyone else but yourself in a situation that was less than ideal. So she carefully walked over to the sofa and sat slowly down while she examined the sheets with her eyes, on the top of the front page it read the following:

_To who it may concern,_

_Dear person whom I just have displaced, my name is Hermione Jane Granger-Weasley, you may know of me through a book series or TV series or something similar that you have read or watched sometime throughout your life. What I am going to tell you now is neither fiction nor a bad joke. I wrote this letter on the 4 th of April 2108, I am currently 129 years old and I don’t think that I will live for too much longer, my health has been declining for the last few months and I fear that my time has come. But before I go I wanted to make a difference and change the course of history, or well the course of history in the world I have just sent you to.   
For that you have to know that at any given time millions of new realities form with every decision we make. This particular reality is nearly an exact copy of the one mine had been, the only difference is the time. I have sent you back to the night of the 31st October 1981. Do NOT try to change anything in that night, I have switched your soul at the exact moment the Killing curse rebounded from Harry and the Potters are already lost. The improbability of Harry surviving the Killing Curse always weakens the walls of the realities; to be honest this aspect had me occupied for years after I discovered the multiverse. _

_By now I am sure you are wondering why I have chosen you, a non magical person to change the fate of the Wizarding world._

_Well… I didn’t specifically chose you, the spell did. My requirements were the following, you had to be aware about what had happened throughout our years at Hogwarts and feel somewhat sympathetic to our society. Additionally the spell checked that you didn’t have any strong social or emotional bonds to your birth reality that would have held you back or made you resentful. Furthermore the spell searched for somebody who was able to adapt fast, above average in intelligence and most important had a counterpart in this reality._

_Yes you have read right, a counterpart in this reality, to be more specific a squib counterpart. You are probably wondering why a squib, it will help you to navigate both sides; furthermore it wouldn’t have worked if I had tried to exchange a magical mind with yours, the magic of this person would have fought the spell at best and wreaked havoc in your reality at worst, so I couldn’t risk it. I assure you, your counterpart had just as few social and emotional bonds to her/his reality as you had, the spell wouldn’t have worked otherwise._

_To further ease your way into your new life I have ensured that as soon as you go to sleep the memories of your counterpart are incorporated into your mind, it will be as if they were your own memories right from the beginning._

_Back to the original topic, my reason for doing this, as you know the war with Voldemort cost a lot of lives and ripped apart families, but only after the war and well into our carriers in the Ministry we realized how truly devastating the damage was. Nearly fifty percent of the magical humans capable of producing children had been wiped out in the UK. Magical children are typically very rare if you aren’t a Weasley or a Prewett and with the two families being combined into one there weren’t any other large families around, this led to a stagnation that we couldn’t hope to break. You are probably now wondering what our problem was, after all there should be Wizards everywhere, well that’s what I thought too._  
A very well known fact about the Wizarding society is that it doesn’t take change too well, the Britain Wizarding Conclave made up fifteen percent of the worlds magical population, with another twenty five percent in mainland Europe (weakened from its war with Grindelwald), thirty five percent in China and the rest making up the other nations. Only a few Wizarding families had moved to America and Australia throughout the centuries and so most of the magical population there consists out of muggleborns, who normally choose the option of having their powers bound and receiving a non-magical education. Yes you have read right, nearly seventy percent of the families there chose to be obliviated and their children to be bound. The problem with those bindings is that they are hereditary, that means that this family is practically a squib family without a chance to ever use magic again.   
And now we come to the truly bad news, the department of mysteries has calculated that it will probably only take three or four generations until we are too few to have our own separate society and they are unsure how the muggles would react to us being revealed. 

_The European wizarding world in my dimension faces extinction for the first time in more than six thousand years of magical history and the magical world population is not far behind. Not even the witch hunts were this devastating to our continuing existence. Additionally to this there has been a rapid decline in magical creatures. What a lot of the experts don’t speak out loud but all think is that in two to three hundred years there won’t be anything magical left on Earth._

_Magic is dying._

_My other reason for sending you here is Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, the man-who-conquered, my best friend and somebody who deserves better._

_Harry never had it easy in his life, not with the Dursleys, not at Hogwarts and especially not after his divorce from Ginny. Yes their marriage fell apart some time after Lily entered her second year, Ginny accused him of being a workaholic and not loving her anymore while in truth she was seeing Dean Thomas on the side, who himself had a family at that time. Let’s just say the divorce was nasty and very public, he did his best to shield the kids and meanwhile forgot to protect himself from the media. Harry died with barely seventy six, which is very, very early for a wizard of his strength. His children have never forgiven their mother for this.  
The abuse throughout his childhood, the stress and heartache also played a big part in this and I have regretted his circumstances for the rest of my life. I’m sure you want to know about me and Ron, now that I have told you about Ginny and Harry. Well it wasn’t as bad as with them, while my love for my husband faded sometime after our third child Margaret, I still saw him as a good friend and companion and so stayed with him until his death with hundred nineteen. _

_But back to the topic, I know that it isn’t my right to ask you to intervene and to improve the future, but as the manipulative old crone that I am I still hope that you are softened by the fate of my reality and seek to help this one._

_As a way to make your life easier and should you choose to interfere with Wizarding affairs I left you the company names and persons in both magical and muggle world that will do well in the next 90 years. Don’t feel bad to use it to your advantage even if you decide to leave well enough alone, after all I misplaced you, see it as some sort of compensation for the inconvenience._

_All my wishes,_

_Hermione Jane Granger- Weasley_

Seraphim was stunned while she thumbed through the following pages, they contained a list with hundreds of names, some more or less familiar, some she knew from advertisements in her old dimension. Beside every single one was a second date when she should pull out at the latest.

Unbelievable, this was unbelievable. Tired and still unsure what to do Seraphim went to bed in this strange mirror image of her flat.

When she awoke on the 1st of Nov. she had the most horrible headache in her life and she immediately froze her movements to stop the pain. With a few deep breaths she worked through the worst before she had her bearings together. While she lay in her bed she was suddenly hit with memory after memory, she felt like a vortex had swallowed her up and she was close to vomiting when it finally stopped.

Being hit by eighteen years of memories doesn’t sound that bad in theory, in reality you are hit with the emotions too, that means you go through fifty or so emotions per second without being able to catch your breath. In the end the only thing Seraphim could do for the next three hours was lie there and breathe as calmly as possible to not vomit over herself and then choke on it.  
Seraphim wasn’t going to lie, the experience was horrible and disgusting and everything that made her shudder, but it had it’s purpose, she now knew that this wasn’t a joke, she now knew what her counterpart had been doing for most of her life. But most importantly she now knew that she already had had decided to help Harry and the Wizarding World.

##  Chapter 3

To her relief Seraphim was off work for the next three days and only had to start after lunch on the 4th. Being thirty years in the past had not only an impact on the fashion and devices around her. No Seraphim was now also working somewhere else then the Sure Start Children Centre. She worked as a waitress in a relative high class restaurant in Farnborough while she additionally volunteered some hours per week at the local orphanage to have some additional qualifications and endorsements for a higher education, and from what Seraphim had felt throughout the memories her counterpart had started to genuinely like the work with the children. There she was expected to return before the 2nd of November, which also suited Seraphim just fine.

She choked down some bread and tea before she left the flat and walked to her car. She may have been unable to drive one in her time but with the new memories and not so strict driving laws she felt herself capable of getting around in the second hand car. Due to the recession and the high unemployment percentage Seraphim knew that she had to be careful with her resources, but she couldn’t help herself, she was curious how Privet Dive looked and what would happen in the next few hours.

Seraphim arrived sometime before two o’clock at the middle class suburbs with the white picket fences and the row houses. Number 4 Privet Dive didn’t distinguish itself through some mysterious detail; it just looked like any other home on that street. Seraphim didn’t know what she had expected but she felt slightly disappointed. With a sigh she drove a few streets down and made herself comfortable in the local library. There she took out the fresh notepad that she had taken with her. She wrote down the goals that Hermione wanted her to achieve somewhere in the next ninety years.

1\. Stop the war from becoming too bad and taking so much lives  
2\. Give Harry the childhood he deserved  
3\. Increase the population of the Wizarding

She then wrote down the goals that she thought were the most urgent

1\. Giving Harry the childhood he deserved

Now here was a problem, the Dursleys wouldn’t change their mind about him no matter what she did. She could move somewhere close and try to initiate contact but this could be seen as suspicious behavior if somebody caught her doing this and she was sure that Dumbledore would never allow her to make decisions concerning Harry’s health if he thought it would hinder his plan for the boy who lived.   
Seraphim had a less than stellar picture of the old headmaster thanks to the books; he had just made too many mistakes throughout his dealings with Harry and other people, which had led to them suffering. His standard phrase that it was for the greater good had always disgusted her, it reminded her too much of Hitler. Who was he to decide like a dictator what the greater good was?   
She had never understood why Harry had let the old man just walk over him without rebelling even a little bit, after all she had been in a similar position and she had tried to do her best to get out of it as fast as possible. On the other hand she hadn’t had a prophecy looming over her, so maybe she couldn’t compare these things. Anyway, Seraphim would help him, she didn’t want a child to suffer like this if she could do something about it.   
Still, moving close to Surrey was not a viable option but leaving him there wasn’t either. Just taking him would be just as bad, that would be kidnapping and she was relatively sure that Harry would be taken from her if somebody ever found out about it. No she needed a legal and iron clad way to gain custody. If he had been an orphan in an orphanage it would be much easier…

Seraphim paused before she looked up and stared at the last keyword she had written, orphanage. She would have to somehow manipulate the Dursleys to leave Harry at an orphanage, no matter what the letter said that Dumbledore wrote.

The letter, of course!!!

Seraphim’s eyes sparkled; she only had to remove the letter from Harry’s basket. If the Dursleys were just like or close to how they had been described in the books, they would take one look at him and leave him at the nearest orphanage, which coincidently was Farnborough.   
Seraphim slowly started to grin; she just knew that somewhere above her Fate was smiling down at her.  
The next step after meeting Harry at the orphanage would be fostering him and then adopting him, Seraphim wasn’t quite sure how strict the rules of Adoption were at the moment but she didn’t believe that they were any worse than the ones in 2010. She had heard a lot of the adoptive parents moan about the long and tedious process they had had to go through before they could adopt.   
Seraphim would have to take a closer look at those laws after ensuring that Harry landed in the right orphanage. Still, being his adoptive mother in the muggle world wouldn’t be enough when it came out that he was Harry Potter, she would need an even clearer case for the Wizarding world and for this she would have to establish herself, a squib, in it and probably need a few changes in the Wizarding adoption law.

Now that she had the knowledge of her counterpart she knew that she had next to no claim what so ever in the Wizarding World. Like her father she couldn’t inherit the gold vault that had been her families throughout generations, only a viable magical heir or heiress could inherit. What she could do was be partial regent for her minor magical son or daughter. She wouldn’t be able to use any seats at the ministry or the Wizgamot but she could authorize a witch or wizard in her place to vote, she also could change the portfolio and the shares around as she wanted.   
Her counterpart had learned this through the squib courses she had taken via owl while she had pursued a muggle education. The Other Seraphim had been just as mentally capable as herself and the red head hoped that she would be able to adapt to the complete magicless world Seraphim had lived in. Her parents on this side were just as horrible as her other set, maybe even a tad more bitter because of them being magicless. Her counterpart had left them as soon as she hit fourteen and had used the help of the Squib department to be placed into muggle system. With the use of some well placed memory charms she was set up as a ward of the state and her expenses had been paid for her throughout her school time. Even though she had received money from the state she had still worked part time during school and full time in the holidays to accumulate as much money as possible for after her graduation, which certainly had paid off for Seraphim.

2\. To keep Harry she would need to obtain power in the magical world, which in turn meant money and connections.

To change laws Seraphim needed money, a lot of money and powerful MAGICAL friends. She sighed she had no idea how she would accomplish this but she would have to find a way, after all she had hopefully ten years until Dumbledore found out.

When the closing time of the library came around, Seraphim was still not closer to a solution about how to win influence, the only thing she knew was that she had to have something that the old families wanted but couldn’t just take from her. Frustrated and unsure what to do Seraphim walked back to her car and slowly drove by Privet Dive 4, there wasn’t a basket on the front porch yet. So Seraphim decided to search for a bar to spend the evening before returning.  
She found one not far from park and settled with a soda in a corner of the thankfully relative quiet bar. Some men were playing pool, and she also saw some couples in booths and small tables but people weren’t giving her a second glance. After nursing her drink for an hour she ordered another one and some pub grub, the waitress had taken a quick look at the note pad and had her probably pegged as a college student trying to prepare for an exam. She had brought her unasked a glass of water and had turned up the light in her corner a little bit. Seraphim smiled gratefully, nothing went over attentive operating staff and when the waitress returned with her food Seraphim thanked the kind older woman for exactly that, which in turn got her a warm smile and a light pet on the shoulder.

When the woman was gone Seraphim froze. Attentive, smart and especially independent staff… That was what the Wizarding world was lacking, they had their magic and houseelves to do the things for them but magic couldn’t think for itself for the day to day happenings and the houseelves were too scared to do something wrong to be a reliable independent help. Seraphim would have to think more about the topic, but she thought she finally had a solution for her problem.

An hour after midnight she finally asked for the bill and gave a big tip before she left. This time Seraphim left her car behind and walked to the family home three streets down. She was glad that the streets were well lit; the night had something creepy to it, November had never been her favorite time of the year. When she finally walked past Number two Seraphim slowed down and threw a cautious look at the front porch, and low and behold there was a basket on the door step. After a cautious gaze around her Seraphim slipped closer and looked into the basket. A small smile started on her lips, Harry was a cutie, the scar on the other hand was red and raw and made Seraphim shiver. Her gaze travelled further down and fell onto the letter tugged into the side of the basket. The red head plucked it out and then did something devious, should Dumbledore ever come looking for the letter it had to be on Dursley property. With a quick movement she moved some of the dirt in the flower bed aside and put the letter in it. With any luck the letter would already be destroyed by water and weather when Petunia started to take care of the flower beds next spring.

With a last gaze Seraphim turned around and walked back to her car, it was now shortly after two and it was high time to get home.

##  Chapter 4

The next day when she arrived at the orphanage she was greeted by the personnel with the news about their second youngest arrival this year. Everyone was curious about the child because he was dressed in quality clothing and didn’t look neglected or abused, also the scar was a topic of the conversation, being so unusual and many speculated what had made it. After a quick look in on Harry Seraphim made her way over to the common room to help with homework and play with the kids. Now that Harry was in her zone of influence she would have to slowly start spending more and more time with him.

It took two months in which she slowly had carefully increased the visits with him while not neglecting the other children. Her coworkers were convinced that she was smitten with the black haired boy, the fact that the orphanage personnel thought that Harry was slightly strange made it even easier for Seraphim. So when she approached the director about a possible adoption the kind but strict older woman didn’t seem to be surprised. She just nodded and explained the requirements of adoption to Seraphim. The time and dimension traveler had been right, the requirements were a lot less serve then thirty years in the future. After submitting the necessary documents it took another two months for the approval to come through as well as three individual interviews and a visit to her home. Thankfully Seraphim had a two bedroom flat in this dimension and so she didn’t have to move before adopting Harry.

The orphanage had named him Harrison Jason Pike, the last name a wink at the ever popular Star Trek series. So when the approval came and Seraphim was asked if she wanted to change the name she took the opportunity and named the boy-who –lived, Hyperion Evangelos O’Connell. From the drunk ramblings’ of her counterpart’s father she knew that the O’Connells liked to name their male children after the Greek Titans. Evangelos was a reference to her own first name Seraphim and O’Connell as surname was a given.

Hyperion was a lively boy but the longer Seraphim spend time with him the queasier she felt, she suspected that the scar was the reason for the feeling and she decided to do something about this. Seraphim knew it was a risk to go to a wizard with a child that had a scar on the forehead but thanks to an accident that Hyperion had with another toddler only a few weeks back, the scar was no longer recognizable as a lightning bolt. At that time Seraphim hadn’t had adopted him yet and so she nearly had a heart attack when she heard Harry’s screams coming from the toddler room. Sarah, the other one year old toddler had fought with Harry for a plushy and had grabbed a pair of scissors which somebody had left there. There had been so much blood and Seraphim had been so sure that Harry had lost an eye at the moment. Thankfully her fears had been unfounded; as a result she had not been able to leave the little boy that day. She had slept in the common room on the couch and had held Harry to herself throughout the night. It was probably the turning point in their relationship, she really felt like his mother and wanted to adopt him because she loved him, not because she wanted to spare him from the Dursleys.

So Seraphim tried to make an appointment at St. Mungo’s which she was denied because she was a squib and she couldn’t prove that Hyperion was magical, without exposing his identity. Frustrated Seraphim left once more to try and find another healer, she was denied by every single one in Britain. The red head was nearly despairing, if she couldn’t even get a healer’s appointment, how the hell would she gain influence?   
Her last try was something of a shot in the dark, she wrote a letter.

 _To-who-it –may-concern,_  
I am writing this letter in hopes that you can help me.  
I have recently adopted a child out of the muggle system and the scar on his head is making me queasy, the problem is that I am a squib and the British Healers deny me to have him checked over. If there is a possibility that somebody competent to take a look I would be forever grateful.

_Sincerely,  
Seraphim O’Connell _

Her last option was also the one that worked out best. The Letter went to an old Chinese lady that lived in England but often went to China to visit her extended family. Her grand nephew was a healer and agreed to take a look at Hyperion should she come to China. So the next time Chen Bao took a portkey to Hong Kong, Seraphim accompanied her. She had taken leave for two weeks as well as withdrew a substantial amount of money from her account. Nine months after starting to invest into companies that would take off Seraphim was already reaping some benefits and most of the money she made she reinvested into the companies or other new businesses that just had been founded.

Hyperion was now twenty three months old and turning out to be very smart, since the moment Seraphim had him in her care the red head had begun to play the developing games that the Sure Start Centre had used back in her original time and the results were visible. He was also getting quite heavy and so the moment they landed in China Seraphim put him down and steadied him against her legs.

Seraphim followed her newest acquaintance to the group of people that stood right beside a generous sized house. The O’Connell duo was politely welcomed by Chen Bao’s extended family and the middle aged woman that was probably the lady of the house was just beginning to speak when the male beside her turned pale. The man moved his wand in a lazy movement over Hyperion before he carried Seraphim’s son instantly to the clinic.   
His actions had alarmed everyone around him; Seraphim could clearly see on their faces that this was not the way he normally acted around strangers. Later Seraphim would be told by his wife, Lin that Huang was very traditional and all about protocol if it wasn’t an emergency and that he had wanted to wait until they all had finished dinner before taking a look at Hyperion. So the whole family was imagining the worst when he suddenly ran off with the little boy. Lin and her sister-in-law Shun took a confused Seraphim and led her two the clinic that was adjoined to the family home. The rest of the family stayed behind to give them some privacy and to properly greet their elder relative.

When Seraphim arrived in the well lit room Hyperion was asleep on the examination table, Huang explained slightly distracted that he had put him to sleep to prevent the young boy from panicking or disrupting the diagnostic charm. Huang then started to ask her about how she had found him and what she had felt around him. Seraphim told him everything about meeting him in the orphanage but only visiting him for a few hours a day and how the muggle caretakers had seemed to be uncomfortable around him. She then told him that she had started to feel it too when he moved into the room beside her, Huang just nodded to her explanation and then said nothing for as long as the spell was working.   
When the diagnostic charm ended and presented something in a sickly read script his sister loudly sucked in air before she muttered something that sounded like a curse word under her breath. Instead of reprimanding his sister, Huang only nodded before he turned back to Seraphim.

“You were absolutely right to come with this to a professional. I have no idea how the idiots in Britain could deny this case. Not only is the boy definitely magical but he is also carrying a very dark and very archaic piece of magic in his forehead, we call it a 魂器. I'm not sure about the translation into English but essentially it is a way to cheat death, a very despicable magic that a lot of the old Chinese warlocks used to survive the wars. Essentially what the ritual does is separating a part of the soul and putting it into an item or person to anchor the rest of the soul to this plane of existence. Placed like this into a child, the soul shard starts to leech off on the magical potential of the child until it grows stronger, left alone the soul fragment grows and in fifteen to twenty years it would start sending a part of the magical power of the child into the body of the 魂器 owner.”

Seraphim felt sick and had to lean against the meticulous clean white wall, Dumbledore had KNOWN about the Horcruxes, possibly more than anybody else in Europe except Voldemort himself and he had knowingly left it in Harry? That rat bastard!!!

She then asked tiredly, “Can you remove it?”

“Yes, it isn’t completely bound to your son’s soul yet. Had you come in two or three years, I wouldn’t have been able to remove it without doing some significant damage to his life expectancy.”

Seraphim turned pale, the Horcrux was probably the reason for Harry’s early death in the other dimension, she pressed her lips together, like hell she would let this happen to her Hyperion!!!

Seraphim then swallowed and said in a nearly broken voice, “Thank you.”

Huang just nodded before he turned his eyes back on the child in front of him, the boy had been very very lucky that he found a guardian that went to such lengths to ensure his well being. With a hand wave he removed the sleeping charm before he turned to the mother once more.

“I am going to fire call some of my colleagues right now. We will perform the ritual tomorrow.”

The women in the room just nodded, Seraphim had sat down beside Hyperion and had started to comb through his chin length hair, she hadn’t had been able to cut it, the longish hair suited him.

A short time later Hyperion began to stir under her before he sleepily opened his eyes.

“Hello there sleepy head.” Seraphim said while she pulled him into a warm embrace.

“M-mummy, why I sleepy?” Hyperion asked confused.

“You remember that Mr. Bao moved you here? He put you under a sleeping spell so that he could look for booboos.”

“Oh, doctor found booboo?” Hyperion asked curious.

“Yes, tomorrow it will be gone.” Seraphim reassured the little black haired boy while she kissed him on the head.

“Oh, okay.” Hyperion shrugged with his shoulders, he knew that his mama would never let anybody hurt him and so he wasn’t worried about tomorrow.

The group of women and the little boy then made their way to the dining room of the house. On the way Huang caught up to them and they joined the rest of Chen’s family and the O’Connells were introduced to the other family members. Huang, with Seraphim’s permission gave a rapid account in Chinese about what was wrong with Hyperion, before all of them started to eat dinner.

The next day, while Huang and his colleagues prepared the Rune ritual, the women in the family took Seraphim and Hyperion into the closest magical district to go shopping. Seraphim enjoyed the outing, the women while a bit formal treated her like she was one of their own, they had put a translation spell on both her and Hyperion and were now giving her tips how to handle the accidental magic and future temper tantrums. They also led her to some nifty shops that produced protection and cancelling out charms. Lin was explaining about how those charms helped her with her eldest son, Xiang, who had a lot of accidental magic in his early years and especially in his dreams. They had put the charms up in his bedroom and it had canceled out the stronger bouts of magic, the little ones would disappear after some time on its own and so weren’t counted. This calmed Seraphim immensely until now Hyperion had only made a few things float to him or change the color of a shirt or another object in the room when he was surprised, otherwise he was a well behaved child, who was always smiling.

They returned shortly before Hyperion’s nap and talked some more about child care and upbringing. The Bao females were impressed about the detailed plan Seraphim had worked out for Hyperion’s upbringing and education. Having no idea how the muggle schooling system worked they questioned Seraphim about that too, along with her life as squib.   
After deciding to trust the nice Chinese family Seraphim was pretty frank about what sort of treatment she had gotten by the magical people in England and even her parents, but she also told them about the surprisingly good organized Squib department in the ministry. Sometime during the talk Huang and his colleagues had entered the adjoining room and had also listened to the descriptions while they ate a quick snack.

“I think you are very strong to have lived such a live and not become bitter and it speaks highly of you that you go so far to assure the wellbeing of your adoptive son who IS magical.” Chen said while she petted Seraphim’s arm.

Seraphim just snorted before she said, “I can’t stand people who drown in their own self petty, I think that’s pathetic and Hyperion IS my son, blood or not, magical or not. I love him and I damn well will move heaven and earth for him if I have to.” around her the Chinese witches and wizards smiled.

After Hyperion awoke from his nap the healers and Rune casters finished the Rune circle and Hyperion was placed into the middle and put to sleep, nobody wanted to risk stressing the child out, then they started to activate the runes around him.  
The process took the better part of an hour, Huang who had moved over to the concerned mother and explained to her what each of the circle layers did and why the process was taking so long. The length of the ritual was a precaution so that they really caught every bit of the Horcrux and also didn’t damage the soul and magic of the toddler. Seraphim was tense throughout the whole ritual and only relaxed when Huang ran a final diagnostic charms and proclaimed Hyperion as Horcrux free. The young mother just smiled grateful and took Hyperion into her arms while he slowly woke up.

After a more formal thank you to all involved parties Seraphim asked after the price of the procedure, Huang and the other Chinese wizards just waved her question aside, they wouldn’t take money for getting rid of something this vile, additionally they all had gathered experience with dealing such a thing which looked very good on their résumé. They wished her and Hyperion the best before they vanished through the floo system.

##  Chapter 5

The next two weeks Seraphim and Hyperion enjoyed the hospitality of the Bao family, both of them took a language potion that would speed up the their ability to understand and learn the language, as well as got a crash course in Chinese Wizarding etiquette. Seraphim left China with wistfulness and promised to return the following summer, in the mean time she would buy herself a long distance owl and move closer to Chen’s flat in the Wizarding area of Bracknell. Seraphim had received an offer of her employer, Mr. Miller to move to an even more upscale restaurant in Bracknell that he also owned. Her quick mind, ability to remember and anticipate the needs of the customers had distinguished her from the other serving personnel and he offered her training under the new head waiter. The advantages of the offer clearly outweighed the drawbacks, this would not only mean better pay but also a better choice of a kindergarten for Hyperion and the fact that Chen could look after Hyperion should Seraphim need to work late. A magical area also meant that the possibility of having obliviators in the flat significantly was next to nothing additionally she had a public floo connection to Diagon alley and other magical districts around England in walking distance.

So the first thing she did when she returned from Hong Kong was agreeing to the offer from her boss before stopping her renting contract with the end of the month and signing a contract for a flat in the same building as Chen. Thanks to the elderly witch her things were packed and shrunk in less than half an hour and she could spend the rest of the day decorating her new flat before she started to research the local kindergartens and took Hyperion out for ice cream in the magical area. To fit better in Seraphim exchanged some pounds into galleons and bought herself and Harry a set of robes. They spent a relaxed afternoon at the nearby magical park and Hyperion also got his first Wizarding picture and story books. Tried they fell into their new beds with Hyperion’s charms set up around the rooms.

The following year Seraphim trained under the head waiter Mr. Jameson, a very strict and correct man who only accepted perfection. To complement her instructions she was also enrolled into wine courses. Seraphim enjoyed her work although the junior boss, Mr. Miller’s presumptuous son was getting harder and harder to ignore, already two waitresses had quit because of his lecherous behavior and he had now set his sights on Seraphim. The young mother was exasperated, she liked her job, she really did but this was really getting out of hand.   
When on one Friday evening after closing hours he moved his hand up her skirt while she was filling up the cabinets with freshly washed and polished glasses she finally had enough. Seraphim whirled around and slapped him before she shoved him away from her.

With a furious face and her lips pressed together she walked into Mr. Miller’s bureau and stated ice cold, “I’m resigning with today.”

“Miss O’Connell, why… what do you mean with you are resigning?” Mr. Miller looked completely shocked, beside him was Mr. Jameson who just looked displeased but didn’t say a word.

“I have enough of your son forcing his attentions on me; today he went too far when he put his hand up my skirt. I am sorry Mr. Miller that I put you in this unfortunate situation before a weekend but I will not be returning tomorrow or on any other day.”

Mr. Miller looked speechless; the head waiter beside him now looked seriously offended.

“He put his hand up your skirt Miss O’Connell?” Mr. Jameson asked with a dangerous calm voice.

“Yes and I have enough. Mr. Miller, Mr. Jameson I wish you the best, I have enjoyed working for both of you and I hope you can solve this situation as soon as possible but I will not expose myself to this any longer. I will bring over my written resignation tomorrow before opening. Good Night.”

“Good Night Miss O’Connell.” Mr. Jameson stated while Mr. Miller just nodded, still speechless.

Seraphim removed her things from her locker and made her way out of the restaurant; before the door closed behind her she could hear Mr. Miller bellow, “Are you out of your mind? You just lost me one of my best employees because you couldn’t stop thinking with your dick!!! …”

Seraphim grinned while she walked to her car, Miller Junior was definitely going to get it. Back in her flat Seraphim stretched out and enjoyed a cup of hot tea in the bathtub, because she had expected to work until two in the morning at least, Hyperion was spending the night at Chen’s flat. So now Seraphim had time to think about either searching for another job in the muggle world or start looking in the Wizarding world. There were not a lot of eateries in the Wizarding world; most people ate either at home, in the cafeteria at work or at the leaky cauldron. There was only one upscale restaurant in whole England and that was in Manchester, they also only served traditional English food. So there was a very big unfulfilled corner on the market that Seraphim intended to fill.

So she started to list off what she would need to do to open her restaurant, the first thing was permission from the ministry as well as location for her restaurant. The Wizarding world didn’t have anything like health inspections or even a restaurant permit. The only thing you needed was the permission of the ministry to open up a business. It was the first thing on Seraphim’s list and probably the hardest to accomplish. The next point would be a location for the restaurant, but Seraphim could decide that when she had the permit from the ministry. After that she would have to buy houseelves, they would cook in the kitchen and clean up after closing hours and they would have to either learn to cook dishes from other countries or she would have to purchase houseelves from other countries. Seraphim then would have to establish contracts with food suppliers national and international. And finally the most important point, she would have to hire and train personnel to give the restaurant a personal touch.

Putting her plans aside for the moment Seraphim went to bed and celebrated with sleeping in. The next day she picked up Hyperion around nine o’clock and told Chen about the happenings of the evening before. The old woman was properly outraged and promised to support her during her future plans.

The first thing Seraphim did after dropping off her resignation at the restaurant was a trip to the Bank. There she checked over her investments and the profit she had made of it. Seraphim and Hyperion were now relatively well off, Seraphim had increased her savings more than tenfold in two years and she was relatively sure that it would be enough to start her business, without having to sell any of her shares.

So the first thing Seraphim did after arriving at the ministry was a trip to the Squib department. There she was informed about the additional process a squib had to go through to open a business in the magical world. Seraphim rolled her eyes but filled out the paperwork before she and one of the only four people strong department walked to the department that was responsible with approving new businesses. The bored looking wizard checked the paperwork before he stamped it to be processed and told her to come again in two days. Seraphim thanked the ministry worker that had accompanied her and left the building. When she returned two days later, this time alone she was told by another ministry worker that there had been unforeseeable problems and that it would take at least another week, the red head simply knew that it was just bigotry that stopped her paperwork from coming through. So when Seraphim returned the following week she had brought another worker of the Squib Department as a precaution. The same worker that had stopped her from getting her paperwork the week before turned slightly pale and handed over the permit without another world. Outside the department Seraphim and the wizard grinned at each other before they said goodbye.

Having finally the document in her hands Seraphim didn’t waste another second and made a beeline to the only magical real estate office in London to look at properties and buy one as soon as possible. The only problem with that was that the owner was somebody who liked to bully squibs. When he found out that she was a squib he turned up his nose and waved at the wall where to cheaper and dinkier pieces of property were, to be exact Knockturn Alley.

Seraphim tried to protest but her only answer was a sneer and the sentence, “I won’t let you buy anything that could be of use to magical folk, be glad that I don’t throw you out!” before he turned his back to her.

Seraphim had to calm herself before she said something that would get her really thrown out and she needed a place in a Wizarding area if she wanted to cater to Wizarding folk. Desperately she scanned the properties; nothing decent caught her eye when she noticed something. Some of the properties had sequenced numbers, somewhere in Knockturn Alley was a whole side street for sale, seven properties to be exact, and it was even close to the entrance to Diagon Alley from what she could see of the map that represented the magical district from London. Another look on the property number showed that a few properties directly at the entrance were also free. An idea was starting to form in Seraphim’s head, when life gives you lemons make lemonade.   
She looked at the prices, they were all cheap, even together they wouldn’t blow her building funds, the amount would stretch it, but not by much. She carefully removed all the Knockturn Alley properties from the wall and walked over to the bastard behind the counter.

“So,” he asked malicious, “Which one did you choose?”

Seraphim smiled calmly, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of riling her up, “All of them.”

“All of them?” the man asked confused but the just shrugged his shoulders and sold them to her, after all he didn’t think that she could do anything with them.

Drained Seraphim returned home to an energetic Hyperion, this brought a smile to her face; this crap was all worth it for seeing Hyperion smile. She spent the rest of the day with her son while she thought about the different possibilities to make the properties valuable.

##  Chapter 6

In the evening she went back to Hermione’s list and looked over the names that would become big inventors in the magical future. Six Wizards and a witch stuck out to Seraphim they would present their inventions to the public in one to five years if left alone, but what if she offered them to finance their research and gave them space to work in for a cut of their profits? Seraphim spread out the properties she had before deciding on the one closest to Diagon Alley. It was well sized and could be sectioned into several work labs. From what Chen told her the Goblins would ward any house for a fee against anything they wanted and with additional magic to prevent the place from exploding it would be a perfect place for research.

On the next day after dropping Hyperion off at kindergarten Seraphim made her way to Gringotts, where she sat down with a goblin and a curse breaker and discussed her ideas for the research building. The prices made Seraphim wince, those inventors better be worth it. She swallowed her concerns and signed the contract. The wizards and goblins in charge of her property would start the following day and it would probably take five to ten days to finish everything.  
Having just signed a very expensive contract Seraphim was determined to find the inventors and convince them to work for her. At the end of the day she had convinced three of them right from the start. They would sign an appropriate contract at the Clearwater attorney the next day while the other four still needed more convincing.   
Seraphim had become a customer of the Clearwater law firm when she had given them her property purchases to check over.

It took Seraphim the next ten days while the goblins worked to convince the rest of the inventors to sign her contract but somehow she made it happen. The moment the goblins and curse breakers left the house; the inventors started to renovate their work space and moved their research material in. Each section had a password secured door, similar to the four houses in Hogwarts. But instead of speaking the wizards wrote a word on the parchment beside the entrance which also checked their magical signature. Besides being fire and water proof, the building had also a poison detection system, the moment it detected the substance harmful to humans that wasn’t correctly contained it would start a loud warning tone and the area in which it happened would glow violet.   
The witch also took care of the building front and the corridors between the workspaces; she apparently had a slight case of OCD. Afterwards the brick stone building looked exactly like the ones in Diagon Alley, maybe even cleaner and the window frames were white once more. Inside the building the corridors received a white coat and the stone floors were scrubbed painfully clean while the cracked tiles had been repaired. As icing on the cake the inventors put a sign above the door with the name Inventor’s lodge and a boiling cauldron on the side.

Seraphim met her next boarder by coincidence; Chen introduced the red head to her next door neighbor, a young and bright muggleborn witch that wanted to open a magical bakery but couldn’t afford to buy a permit and a building. Seraphim offered her the building across from the Inventor’s lodge. She could move into the flat above the ground floor and open up her bakery on the ground level. Miriam agreed to take a look and then signed a contract only an hour later. To prevent the young muggleborn from being robbed and or taking advantage off, Seraphim hired the goblins once more to put wards on the building, this time the wards were also intent based and would turn people with malicious intent to the shop or Miriam away. Afterwards Seraphim despaired somewhat her bank balance wasn’t looking good at the moment.

The bubbly muggleborn moved her things in the next day and started to renovate the whole building, in the time of one day you couldn’t recognize the once dingy building anymore. It looked clean and welcoming, Miriam had even put some flower pots in front of the repaired and gleaming floor length windows. She told Seraphim that she would move them back into the bakery every evening to prevent damage or theft. Only a few days after Miriam’s moving that a delicious smell waved through the streets of Knockturn Alley and even attracted people from Diagon Alley.   
In the timeframe of two weeks Miriam’s place had become an insider tip and she was making money hand over fist. The owner of the second-hand-shop beside the bakery who was now making profit from the increased traffic also cleaned up his building and windows.

And suddenly the street didn’t have such a daunting feeling to it anymore.

The next house over was once again one of Seraphim’s and after talking to Miriam she realized that there wasn’t a lot of safe, cheap living space for young wizards and witches right out of Hogwarts who didn’t want to live at their parents place anymore, or needed to move out. So she let this building be warded too against the basic threats. The goblins had given her a slight discount this time around, because she had provided them with business for the third time that month alone and they wanted to keep her as customer. Thanks to the popularity of Miriam’s bakery there was another steady income of money, still Seraphim’s savings drained faster than she had hoped and her weekly check of her finances let her grimace, hopefully this would soon end. For the apartment building Seraphim let her law firm draw up a very specific kind of contract. The conditions were very particular. For the first three years after graduating from Hogwarts the rent was very cheap but after that the rent increased a bit each year until it was slightly more expensive than a normal flat. It was tailored so that the tenants would move out and new graduates could move into the cheap flats.

Miriam put word out to her old year mates and in two days every last flat was rented out. Seraphim looked disbelievingly at the filled out contracts before she slowly started to smile, okay this could actually work. In this case the recent graduates had taken to repair and decorate the building as well as the partially destroyed side walk. A few smart charms and runes students had remodeled cheap lanterns and had spaced them evenly between the apartment building and the entrance to Diagon Alley. The left part of Knockturn Alley looked now more and more like Diagon Alley with each day and now the street was lit up even walking at night didn’t seem so daunting.   
Seeing how quick the people around her buildings followed the cleaning up process Seraphim moved to the side arm that belonged as a whole to her. The biggest building she had chosen as her restaurant while the smaller ones would hopefully become clothing, jewelry and gift shops. Seraphim wanted a noble and rich reputation for this part of Knockturn Alley and so after having the goblins ward all seven buildings at the same time Seraphim went hunting for suitable people to man the shops. She found the first one through another one of Chen’s connections. Yung-Zhen Wu was the bastard son of a British pureblood and his Chinese mistress and had it rough throughout his whole life. He had been the apprentice of a magical jewelry maker before the old man died and left his business to his son, who promptly fired Yung-Zhen. Just as for a restaurant you didn’t need a permit for a jewelry shop but you needed the money to buy a ministry permit and rent or buy a place to sell your wares. So when Seraphim offered him a store and living space above it for a cheap rent, he told her he would love to but he needed at least a month to produce enough jewelry to fill the shop. Seraphim who needed at least just as much time to start her restaurant agreed to that.

In the mean time Seraphim finally purchased house elves, because she couldn’t bond with them, she told them to bond with Hyperion, who was her heir. She bought four of them for her trial run and had them cook their best dishes. She invited Chen, Miriam, the Inventors, Yung-Zhen and some of her tenants to taste test the foods and give points. After completing the English part of the menu she sent two of them with Chen to China to learn from the houseelves of the Baos how to cook original Chinese dishes. The elves who had been a bit confused at first about the binding, quickly learned to obey her and took care of not only the restaurant building but also the Inventors lodge and her apartment building. The houseelves service was available to the tenants for a few sickles more per months; they took care of all the house work with exception of cooking. For the apartment service she bought two additional elves and bonded them to Hyperion who found the whole process funny.

Seraphim then decided to finally start hiring squibs, she had decided that if she wanted to integrate them into society they would have to be visible and their numbers had to be seen. For that to happen she wrote to the Squib Department to put word out that she was hiring other squibs. In the following four days she received nearly thirty applicants from squibs between the age of twenty and fifty. Squibs unlike muggles, lived just as long as wizards, could see the magical districts and use some of its objects as well as the magical transport, it was also a known fact that potions while not having completely the same effect, worked similar on them.

When they arrived at the restaurant building the first thing Seraphim did was asking after additional qualifications as well as where they had worked before. They had been in a number of different jobs, but ten of them had already had experience in serving, all of them were kind of youngish between twenty and thirty five and she had decided to use them as serving personnel. In the midst of all the squibs was Nicholas Prewett. The forty something accountant was rapidly employed by Seraphim, after all she needed somebody who knew both worlds to keep track of her money and advise her correctly. She had given him the assignment to read up on Wizarding law and then go through both her investments in the muggle world and her business in the Wizarding World to check if she could cut costs somehow.

She thanked the remaining squibs for their time and told them should she have more job offers she would call on them again.

##  Chapter 7

The squibs she had chosen for her restaurant were then put through a rigorous training regime that took up to six hours a day, for which she compensated them a bit. They then were sent to the supplement courses in the muggle world that she had gone through herself some time ago. Thanks to some language accelerating potions they had the wine knowledge down to near perfection.   
Seraphim had noticed the different effect it had on squibs during her time in China, for wizards the potion was really only useful for languages but for squibs it was more of an increased assimilation and memorization potion, something that shouldn’t be possible in the Wizarding world or it would have already come to use in Hogwarts. It didn’t make you smarter but it did increase your ability to take in and remember information for a certain time period, once the brain had the information remembered correctly it didn’t need the potions effect anymore to recall the information. When Seraphim first noticed this effect, she was stunned and unsure what to do with it, but now that she had a squib workforce that could benefit from it, ideas started to pop up in her head. With the potions she could train very knowledgeable assistants and small magical gadgets like the child dicta quills that were activated by a word would help them move around the Wizarding world relatively unhindered. Magical contracts would take care of their loyalty because they could still sign them and be bound by them.

Beside the normal knowledge about upscale restaurant service, the squibs also learned different languages, for that purpose she sent them into Paris for two weeks via Portkey. Seraphim used the time to inquire by the French Ministry about buying a French houseelf, it wasn’t done regularly but there had been one or two instances when it happened and so Seraphim purchased another houseelf, she now had seven of them in total, a respectful number in a Wizarding manor. All of them were wearing uniforms in either white or grey, depending of their job. Seraphim had explained to them about how the uniform didn’t count as clothing because it was part of their job. All of them had quarters above the restaurant which was the best warded place in Knockturn Alley. The houseelves also took it on themselves to keep Seraphim’s properties and streets squeaky clean.

Some of the more dubious places in the left arm of Knockturn Alley started to close down and move their business over to the right arm. Seraphim took the opportunity and bought the newly abandoned buildings and rented them out to mostly muggleborns and halfbloods who couldn’t afford Diagon Alley or the business permit. Because of how quickly the Wizards moved in and signed contracts Seraphim was slowly loosing track of all of them.   
So to solve her problem she employed two of the squibs that hadn’t made it into the selection of the restaurant as her assistants, the first one a man in his late forties Ethan McKinnely was responsible for her business and tenant contracts while the other, Antoinette Gamp, a young twenty eight year old squib became her personal assistant and started to schedule the days for her, so that she still had time to spend with friends and especially Hyperion. Both of the assistants took regularly the language potion, to increase their knowledge about their fields of work.

Hyperion in the mean time was a very active and happy three year old, who was enjoying exploring new places. His accidental magic had slowed down with the bonding to the houseelves, after a curious Seraphim questioning her workers, they told her that Hyperion was very powerful and that they received his excessive magic through their bond, which strengthened them and kept Hyperion from hurting himself. Seraphim asked them concerned if the bond could hurt Hyperion if another few elves were added. The head elf shook his head at that, the bond normally took only a tiny amount of magic but because of the accidental surges it was used as an escape pipe for the magic. It wouldn’t hurt Hyperion even if she added another hundred elves. Appeased Seraphim nodded and dismissed them.

While another squib who had learned interior design decorated with help of the elves the restaurant, Seraphim moved from European land to European land to buy at least one kitchen houseelf from each land and sent them back to England after having bonded to Hyperion. Her kitchen now covered, English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Austrian, Polish and Russian dishes, which meant twelve houseelves for the cooking and cleaning of the restaurant along with another two for the apartments. Seraphim wanted if possible another one from Japan and India to complete her collection. Concerning her money Seraphim was always balancing on the edge of a knife at the end of the month before the next rental fees came in.

While Seraphim was now searching for high quality but reasonable priced food suppliers, she found another shop owner for her restaurant gap. Sophia LeNoir, a French pureblood who fell on bad times wanted to open a boutique in London, the problem was that she couldn’t afford the prices in Diagon Alley nor wanted she to work under Madam Malkin or Twillfit and Tatting’s who would just exploit her talent. So when she heard about Seraphim she hoped to get a relative cheap building somewhere on the better side of Knockturn Alley. When Seraphim saw the quality and beauty of the robes and dresses she offered Sophia the shop across of the restaurant that she would open soon. Sophia and Yung-Zhen hit it off and nearly instantly started to talk about accessorizing Sophia’s dresses with his jewelry. Seraphim left it to them to discuss the details and just told Antoinette, Toni for short to keep an eye out for a shoe maker to join the duo.

With the help of the houseelves Seraphim finally found a decent muggle supplier for her need. A bit of houseelf magic confused the supplier into thinking that she held all the right credentials for a restaurant and he was delivering the food to her storage facility only a few streets down from the restaurant. To stop the muggle authorities from investigating a member of the squib department charmed her non magical file so that the muggles thought that everything was correct on her side of the business dealings.

In the mean time her muggle wealth was increasing with every month, once more and she was slowly filling up the gap she left behind when she invested into the magical world.

Three months after starting to invest into the Magical World, Seraphim opened up her restaurant; it had the simple name of O’Connell’s. She had fulfilled her wish for an Indian and a Japanese houseelf and was now waiting for the first few guests. Seraphim had taken the indirect path of advertisement, word by mouth and had let people talk about the new restaurant in Knockturn Alley that employed squibs. She knew that this was a significant risk to the reputation of the restaurant but she counted on the inherent curiosity of the wizards to come and investigate at least, and so the first group of guests she received was a gaggle of high society witches that probably wanted to criticize the restaurant. To leave a lasting impression Seraphim attacked with all her knowledge of the different meals and complementing wine choices without being too obnoxious. The result was very interesting; her slight arrogance pertaining the knowledge of food seemed to have impressed the pureblood ladies, because they came again the next day, with other friends and acquaintances. Seraphim was also spot on concerning the price range, she could have made the meals cheaper, a lot cheaper to be honest but she wanted to generate a feeling for the purebloods that middle class people couldn’t afford to go everyday like the more wealthy society.

A quick squib had suggested putting together customer sheets, where they put down any and all kinds of information to keep track off. A bit of houseelf magic pinned the cheat sheets to the wall of the service room and a proximity ward of them, let the sheets glow when the person was sitting inside the restaurant or on the tables in front of it. The Language potion became handy there too, and each of the magical guests felt much more important when greeted by name and title and liked to come again. Seraphim just shook her head before approved the notice of the head waiter to train up more personnel and increase the opening hours. She never would have thought that they would be positively swimming in gold after getting this restaurant running. O’Connell’s was booked full for the next three months and Seraphim was already in the process of remodeling the next floor up as well as the roof to turn them into additional restaurant space. The second floor had a bit of a ballroom feeling to it with the long mirrors on the wall and the baroque style furniture, while the roof terrace was a very expensive and very inventive piece of Rune magic. For this Seraphim had hired Rune Masters from Russia, Russia had the best climate control wards around the world, with that they had made large stripes of wasteland livable for the magical population. The Rune Masters had created an invisible dome over the roof, which contained not only the normal anti-apparation, entering and theft wards, but also stopped the weather from touching the tables. When you looked up you could see the down pour of the rain as well as the lightning, but the temperature was just like inside the other restaurant levels. That dome cost Seraphim nearly as much as buying Knockturn Alley and she had to take a loan by the goblins for a quarter of the amount. Seraphim waited a few weeks before opening the other levels until the other squibs were up to date in their client service, she didn’t want a loss of quality after all. When she finally opened also the other levels the tables were viciously fought over and the kitchen was completely used to capacity, she had never seen her houseelves so happy before, they were positively vibrating with energy.

Funnily enough the squib waiters were treated with respect and as little amount of disdain as possible, no one wanted to be banned from O’Connell’s it would mean an immense loss of face. And Seraphim herself was treated close to a witch of their circles; even Malfoy had grudgingly accepted her for her business sense. Seraphim could see how it was gnawing on Lucius that she hadn’t offered him to by a table for his family’s use, even though he had hinted at it. She needed him a little bit more wanting before she gave in. Toni, her personal assistant who was worth her weight in gold had found her a possible way of making Hyperion completely hers. The Wizarding world had blood adopting rituals, but which were heavily sanctioned by the ministry and as ordinary squib she would never have a chance of appealing for such a ritual.

##  Chapter 8

So when Lord Malfoy walked into O’Connell’s on a Monday morning before opening hours, Seraphim knew that she had him. The waitress that had checked over the cutlery and table decoration had greeted him with the befitting respect before offering him something to drink and informed Seraphim. Seraphim smiled politely at the wizard in front of her before leading him to her bureau.

“Lord Malfoy, what a pleasant surprise. Can I help you?”

“Yes Ms. O’Connell, my wife’s birthday is in three weeks and I want to present her with a year round reserved table at your establishment.”

“Lord Malfoy, I’m sure you are aware that we have been booked solid for the next five months, to reserve a table for just your use would significantly cut into our profits.”

“I am well aware of this and I am willing to compensate.”

“Lord Malfoy, as much as I would like to accept the money I don’t think I should out of the principle that I would have to allow this for other families too.”

“The compensation doesn’t need to be money Ms. O’Connell. My wife is more worth than simple money.”

Lucius was now getting desperate, he NEEDED this table, Cissa hadn’t asked for anything in years and he loved his wife and wanted to fulfill her wish, no matter what. His last sentence seemed to have provoked a reaction.

“You are doing this for your wife…you love your family. Hhm you see Lord Malfoy, I love my family too. Not my parents, but my adoptive son, who recently turned out to be magical.”

“Ah.” Lucius was now listening, a magical heir to the Wizarding business empire this squib had built for herself, now that was interesting.

“You see the problem is, I also want to offer him my family’s vault, it has been closed since my father was found out to be a squib.”

“But that is impossible because he is not of your blood.” Lucius said, the woman in front of him was going somewhere with this.

“Exactly, he is not of my blood but this could be changed with a blood adoption ritual.” The red headed woman stated calmly.

Lucius was reeling was she hinting what he was thinking, “A blood ritual… that would never be allowed to a squib.”

Seraphim smiled before she continued, “There are more benefits than a simple table at my restaurant, Lord Malfoy. Let’s say if you hypothetically get a law passed that squibs could adopt orphaned muggleborns or halfbloods, they could theoretically come into the possession of the family specific gifts and the name. Continuing the names and the blood lines and integrating muggleborns from an early stage, which would mean they would be raised like wizards.”

Lucius stilled, that was outrageous, blunt… and absolutely brilliant. The old coot of a headmaster wouldn’t even be able to say anything because the muggleborns were without guardians that could protest.

“Interesting idea Ms. O’Connell but what happens when you have children of your own and they turn out magical?”

Seraphim was panicking now inwardly, shit what should she tell him, when she remembered the scare she had only a year ago when during a routine health check her doctor told her that she couldn’t conceive children. The diagnosis had been rebuked by two other doctors some weeks later, but it had scared the wit out of Seraphim.

“I am unable to conceive children of my own, Lord Malfoy.” Seraphim said while she looked down.

“My condolences.” Lucius said after an embarrassing silence, inwardly he winced, squib or not that admission had to hurt quite a bit. His thoughts went to his wife, Narcissa had had problems conceiving during their first few years and had she received such a diagnosis his lovely wife would have been more than devastated.

“I have come to terms with it, which is also the reason why I would welcome a blood adoption.” Seraphim stated in a no nonsense tone of voice.

Lucius nodded before a devious smile crept on his face, “Hhm… Ms. O’Connell, I think the minister is in a dire visit from me.” Lucius purred while he smiled down at the cagey woman in front of him.

The smile he received was positively Slytherin when she said, “Of course Lord Malfoy I don’t want to keep you from your business, but before you go there is something else that you will have to decide. Four or six?”

“Four or six?” Lucius asked confused.

“Seats on the table.” Seraphim said slyly while she removed some documents from her work table.

“I think six is a perfectly fine number.”

“Agreed. Good day Lord Malfoy.”

“Good day, Ms. O’Connell.” Lucius said while he strode out of the restaurant, he had a minister to bribe.

It took Lucius fourteen days to convince the suitable Wizgamot members and bribe some more and on the next careful controlled session, they passed the law.

Seraphim shook her head now that went a lot smoother than she would have thought, she grinned when she read the article on the front page. What then followed was probably the weirdest race in history. Nearly one hundred Squibs showed up at that day to register for blood adoption of a magical muggleborn or halfblood orphan. The department of child services was run ragged trying to identify children with magical abilities and no parents and fifty five instant adoptions were scheduled for the next four weeks. Living conditions would be inspected sometime during the following month.

Seraphim laughed while she watched the chaos, most of the squibs that were now registering were in her employment and had started to live in the renovated buildings of Knockturn Alley. The former bad reputation of it was fast changing; some people already called it the new living and shopping district in central London. Especially with the Gap (Seraphim had laughed at the nickname, it had reminded her of the muggle fashion label in the US) being one of the most posh shopping streets in magical London. Across the little side alley a book shop, an apothecary and a pet shop had opened. Seraphim had left the signing and filing of contracts completely to Ethan, who was enjoying his new job. He too had applied for adoption and was now the proud father of a little five year old girl. His adoption ritual was scheduled for the week after.  
Toni on the other hand hadn’t adopted, she told Seraphim under blushing that she was dating one of Seraphim’s waiters and that he had just proposed and that they would like to enjoy married life before thinking about children or adopting.

The sudden child boom made day care centers for the magical kids more than dire and after an emergency session with her closest confidantes Seraphim opened such a child care center in one of the still empty buildings on Knockturn Alley. Some of the squibs that had returned to the Wizarding world because of the recession in the muggle world had training as primary school teachers or kindergarten teachers. They were offered a position in the new daycare and the position of the shop keepers that were now free were filled by other squibs that were slowly returning to the Wizarding world.

The magical folk slowly realized how many squibs there really were and how much the new law boosted their society. The ministry was clapping themselves on their shoulders when they saw how much taxes the returning squibs provided them with that the hardcore pureblood fanatics and their bribes were most of the time ignored, the additional taxes made more than up for the money they didn’t receive from the ‘incentives’.

St. Mungo’s was also encouraged to open a separate wing for squibs, so that their health was also taken care of. This wasn’t even Seraphim’s idea, no some of the bleeding heart light families had banded together and had bullied St. Mungo’s board into doing their bidding.

The day after the article Seraphim received a letter with an appointment to the child service department and an additional blood adopting ritual, the red head shook her head, the head of the Malfoy family had outdone himself.

Hyperion was now nearly four years old and an avid talker and reader, he spent most of his days either playing with the children in the day care or reading story books in the small adjourning library.

Seraphim arrived with Harry in tow at the Ministry shortly before her appointment; at the social service department she showed the worker her adoption papers from the muggle world, before Hyperion was tested for magic. The reading showed him as quite powerful for his age as well as a natural aptitude for charms. After finishing with the signing of the paperwork, the two were led into the ritual chamber under the ministry, two ministry officials watched the Rune Master while he wrote down the circle before Hyperion was put to sleep and into the middle, Seraphim then had to give some of her blood to complete the last runes on Hyperion’s body, before everyone stepped behind the wards and the Rune Master started the ritual.

Seraphim watched while Hyperion’s hair turned from black to her own fiery red and how his skin color turned from slightly tanned to her own pale color. From where she was standing she couldn’t she if his bone structure changed but the ministry official assured her that he would most likely have her cheekbones, that the blood of the adopting parent always took precedent over the birth parents.  
When the ritual was finished and Hyperion finally woke up Seraphim took in the changes with amazement. Hyperion was now a little bit taller than he had before but not by much, his nose was longer and slightly thinner, his cheek bones while still not visible under the baby fat were definitely more defined now, but his eyes had changed the most. Instead of the killing curse green eyes he now had a more jade color in the middle and to the outer part of the pupil it turned into Seraphim’s own ice blue. From what the ministry worker told her Harry would more than likely reach her own father’s impressive six foot three.   
When Seraphim then checked for his scars she was confused when she didn’t find any, the Rune Master explained to her that it was a side effect of the ritual, all of the scars or blemishes that could be removed, would be while the ritual was active. This also meant that Hyperion wouldn’t need to get glasses in the future or a magical eye correction. Seraphim was also warned that he would most likely have a lot of magical accidents in the next few weeks until the additional family magic settled completely.

Because Hyperion felt fine and not tired at all, the two also visited Gringotts where a grim looking goblin led them to the O’Connell vault. Having never been down to the vaults before, Seraphim was probably just as excited as Hyperion and while she could have forgone the rollercoaster experience with the cart she was interested what the vault would contain. When they entered the first thing Seraphim was aware of was the small hill of galleons and other coins in the left side of the vault, it was decent sized but nothing spectacular, her own business was probably ten to fifteen times more worth than this, but what else was in the vault was interesting. One side of the vault was complete filled with shelves that contained quite a lot of books and what looked like journals, there were some weapons leaned against the stone wall and a few flower vases and some landscape pictures, but what surprised Seraphim the most were the fifty or so Wizarding portraits on the last wall.

“Who are you?” a voice demanded.

“Seraphim O’Connell.” Seraphim said while she stroked through Hyperion’s hair when he startled after hearing the voice.

“Are you Kreios’ wife?” a serve looking man with auburn hair asked.

“Daughter.”

“At least it looks like that no good provided us with a magical heiress.”

“I’m afraid not, I am a squib as well, my son Hyperion is the wizard.” And with that she lifted Hyperion on her hip and moved him closer to be examined by the wizards and witches on the wall.

“Hrmpf, it took two damn generations, at least this one looks capable.” The old man grumbled.

“Hyperion is a good name.” the strict looking witch on the other side of the wall nodded in approval.

“He will go to Hogwarts won’t he? Or is he too weak?”

“According to the ministry workers he is above average.” Seraphim smiled proudly while she kissed Hyperion on the cheek, not that it mattered, but Seraphim couldn’t help herself.

“We are here to check the vaults contents and update the portfolio.” Seraphim elaborated while she looked around.

The serve looking witch from before gestured in the direction of a lone cupboard on the far side of the portrait wall, “You will find the documents in there. Say child, is the O’Connell mansion really lost?”

Seraphim grimaced before she said, “Yes, not only was it sold some three generations ago, but it was also destroyed during the time of the Dark Lord Grindelwald, the family that bought it had opposed him, there wasn’t much left but ruins.”

And Seraphim had checked, as soon as she had found out about their ancestral home. The portraits muttered annoyed before most of them went back to sleep. With a quick goodbye the two living O’Connell’s left the vault and made their way up once again and then returned through the public floo back to their flat, there Hyperion finally succumbed to sleep. Seraphim on the other hand checked over the investments and changed some of them. Throughout the years since coming here Seraphim had developed not only a keen sense for her own business but also for others, her intervention had already changed some outcomes for different businesses and she had learned to trust her gut over Hermione’s cheat sheet on most matters.

##  Chapter 9

The following evening was the evening of Narcissa Malfoy’s birthday and Seraphim was interested in the reaction of the normally so icy Lady Malfoy. When they arrived it was Seraphim who greeted them and led them up to the terrace and to the future Malfoy table. It had a stunning view over the roofs of London; right beside the balustrade privacy charms ensured that the conversations on each table were undisturbed. She was also the one that took over waiting for them and guided them through the evening.

After the couple was finished with the main course, Seraphim turned to Narcissa and said, “Pardon my interruption Lady Malfoy, but your husband has prepared a surprise for your birthday. Would it be acceptable to be brought to the table now?”

As an answer Narcissa only nodded, but her eyes looked curious. Her husband who had no idea what Seraphim was talking about just played along, he had intended to tell her after leaving the restaurant about the year round reservation for a table for six.

Seraphim, who had seen how disappointed Narcissa had looked the longer the evening went by couldn’t help herself and decided to help that idiot of a husband out, Malfoy or not that man needed some help. She had the houseelves prepare an ice parfait out of pistachio and edible gold decoration with her name in it, while the second one for Lucius was just a normal one. In the mean time another houseelf had prettily wrapped the framed certificate that contained a lifelong VIP membership along with an iron table card with the Malfoy insignia and name on it. The gifts and the deserts under a cover plate before she returned to the table. The ice parfait brought a delighted smile to Narcissa’s lips and she looked slightly confused to Lucius, he had already given her a very expensive diamond collier in the morning. Her husband coughed slightly and gestured her to open the presents. Narcissa looked slightly suspicious at Lucius, he was NEVER nervous or even embarrassed in public, could it be that he had no idea what was in the presents. Still unsure Narcissa decided to go for it and opened the first one, this one had her confused it was a beautiful replica of their family insignia along with their name but it wasn’t anything valuable or even useful from what she could tell. So she opened the second present and gasped. Somehow Lucius had accomplished the impossible; he had obtained a table for their family, whenever they wished without any kind of reservation. Nobody had been able to do this, she knew all her acquaintances and peers had moaned about the fact that the owner had not given in.

“Oh, Darling.” Narcissa sighed into Lucius direction.

Said wizard nearly flinched, Narcissa hadn’t called him Darling since their first year of marriage. Looking up at the owner, the blasted woman had the gall to wink at him before she retreated, she had saved his ass this evening and she knew it, well at least Narcissa was happy. The Malfoy couple left not too long after finishing with dessert and Lucius paying the bill.  
The following day she was informed that a very smug Lady Malfoy had shown up with her group of society ladies for early lunch and had shown off her birthday present.

With all of her investments paying off as well as the additional gold in the O’Connell vault, Seraphim decided that it was time to buy a home for her family, the portraits questions had made her think about it, she couldn’t continue to live in this flat, which while not tiny, didn’t have an room for a bigger birthday party, which she intended to throw for Hyperion, now that he had made quite a lot of friends. Seraphim had also always dreamed to live in an old castle or mansion someday and enjoy life. She would realize this dream a lot sooner than she had thought, Seraphim was after all barely twenty two years old and she was very curious how she would be received by wizards responsible for the big real estate, the red head could vividly remember the first time she had bought property in the Wizarding world.

So Seraphim had written a letter to the legal department, which was also responsible for the auctions of the property that fell to the ministry after the last heir had died and there was no will. Her answer was polite and informed her that there would be an auction the following day, concerning four different properties around England and Scotland. Delighted Seraphim had confirmed her attendance before she made a visit to Nicholas Prewett. The squib who wasn’t just responsible for the books of all her branch businesses but also her private investments gave her an estimate of what they would probably cost and how much money she had available without endangering any business or liquidating her shares. Seraphim grimaced, she would have to take up a loan again or wait at least another quarter with the purchase. Slightly frustrated Seraphim thanked Nicholas before returning to her home, well she had already agreed to come, she would take a look and if something caught her eye she would bite the bullet and take up a loan. Thankfully the auction was in the morning, which meant she could take Hyperion out of the daycare center in the afternoon and go with him to the zoo, they hadn’t done that yet and she was sure Hyperion would like it.

The next day Seraphim put on slightly more formal robes for the auction before dropping off Hyperion and making her way to the legal department. There weren’t a lot of attends she noted when she put her name on a list and received an auctioning number. Seraphim sat herself in the shadows of the left corner and examined the others. Two of them were clearly purebloods with how high they held their noses, another three looked like ministry workers, she was unsure about their status, but would guess middle class, the last four men in the back looked like completely ordinary wizards from the middle class or slightly above.

When the auctioneer introduced himself and began to introduce all the properties, Seraphim concentrated on the properties, especially the last one caught her eye. It was an early baroque mansion, with two stories and ten rooms, a ballroom, a kitchen and a library. Additionally there were two annexes, one story high. It didn’t look in perfect condition but it wasn’t completely deteriorated, so what was wrong with it to be so comparatively cheap.

It seemed as if she wasn’t the only one who asked herself that, one of the ministry workers asked, “So what is the catch?”

The auctioneer grimaced in front of them and then said in a slightly embarrassed voice, “The building comes with a ghost.”

“Isn’t it practice to have all ghosts removed before selling them?” one of the pureblood witches asked annoyed.

“Yes well, we have been unable to find the ghost’s anchor.”

“So let me get this straight, you are offering us a building that is haunted by a ghost you can’t get rid off? Forget it.” the other pureblood witch said before she and her friend left the room, the others followed them more or less instantly.

Seraphim put her head to the side before her lips twitched; she wanted that property, even if there wasn’t a lot of ground around it.

“Mr. White, I may have a proposition for you concerning the haunted house.” Seraphim said when she had come into hearing distance of the frustrated looking ministry official.

“And you are?”

“Seraphim O’Connell.”

“About what kind of proposition are you talking about?”

“I will buy it for half the price.”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“Really, and I thought that it would be next to impossible to sell the property with any kind of profit. Oh well if you are sure.” and with that she turned around and wanted to walk away.

“Wait… maybe,” he sighed, “I will have to talk to my superiors.”

“Well then, I have time until twelve o’clock.”

An hour later Seraphim signed the ownership contract of the unnamed building, for not even a third of her buying budget. When she had left the ministry she couldn’t help but grin, the wizards may think that they had made the better deal but she knew the truth, a ghost wouldn’t be a problem if she could arrange herself with it.

When she gave Nicholas the documents an hour later, said squib shook his head he never had an idea what his boss was thinking when she was buying real estate or investing in a seemingly failing company only to somehow turn them around. He had learned early to just accept the fact that Seraphim O’Connell was a financial and economical genius and to just do what she was telling him. He had never dreamed that he would get such a high paying job in the Wizarding world, not after he had been diagnosed as squib. Even his more light than neutral family avoided him as much as possible, especially now that both Gideon and Fabian were dead. Those two were the only ones that had never looked down at him for his lack of magic; even their sister Molly who had married into the Weasley clan was uncomfortable around him. It was funny, the Prewett family had been an old and respected family only a generation ago but now the family consisted only out of old members, females who were already married and a squib, who would be the only one to carry on the name. Nicholas grinned, oh yeah that was the best part, he thought vindictive, the money of the Prewetts may have been gone but the seat of the family would go to his recently adopted son Ethan. The boy had been brown haired and eyed before the adoption ritual but now carried the auburn hair that was typical to the Prewetts as well as their hazel eyes. Ethan was a very bright boy and a joy to be around. He had been in a muggle orphanage for most of his life and the nine year old took to magic like fish to the water, he enjoyed learning about the family history and the different magical branches. Nicholas also had no problem with finding a place to watch him when he worked thanks to the child care center Seraphim had opened up after the adoption law had been passed. There he met not only other adopted children but also halfbloods and the occasional pureblood, whose parents used the center while they were working. The prices were more than reasonable and for those who had more than one child in the center, the prices were staggered. Nicholas smiled while he threw a glance out of his office window, the center was across the street and now and then he could see a red haired boy playing games with his new friends.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Seraphim collected Hyperion from the center where he thankfully already had a nap and then made her way back to their flat where they changed into muggle clothes before flooing directly into the leaky cauldron. From there they took the tube to the Zoo, on their way Seraphim explained to him about where they were going. They enjoyed one of the few sunny days in London and wandered from enclosure to enclosure, they saw lots of other families who had had the same idea. Seraphim even allowed Harry ice cream on that day, she normally was pretty strict about sweets that weren’t fruits, she didn’t want Hyperion to become overweight or damage his teeth at such a young age. Instead she normally had another way to reward his good behavior, but then and there she allowed indulgences. When they returned some time before five Hyperion was completely exhausted and fell nearly instantly asleep.

With Hyperion asleep the red haired woman made a check list of what she wanted to get done on the next day. For their new house they would need a staff of at least four houseelves to not overwork them. Seraphim also wanted to look into the grounds situation. The ministry official had told her that her neighbors were all muggle farmers. With the still bad economical situation, Seraphim hoped to be able to buy the land off their hands and increase her grounds. Her property was right in the middle of the Grampian Mountains and while the weather conditions weren’t that bad, she knew from geography that the soil was rocky and hard to till. Another point on her list was Gringotts, she wanted the goblins to check the building for curses and then to put up strong wards, maybe even a Fidelius charm and renew the muggle repelling charms on it. After finishing the list Seraphim went to bed, the day had taken a lot out of her.

##  Chapter 10

The next day being a Saturday, Seraphim concluded her business in Gringotts before making her way to the muggle world to find out more about her new neighbors, which was much harder than it would have been in twenty years. In the end Seraphim only got the information she wanted because of some very clever use of houseelf magic.  
Two of her three neighbors were doing just fine and she didn’t think that they would be agreeable to sell their property, the third though looked like a possibility. The man was an alcoholic in his forties, who had some high debts and whose wife had just left him and was suing him for half of his property. With that knowledge Seraphim contacted the non magical solicitor Nicholas had recommended, he was also a second generation squib and was feeling quite comfortable in the muggle world, but still was open to have contact and clients from the magical world. Said man promised to contact the lawyers of the farmer and make an offer right on Monday morning. Content Seraphim spend the weekend partially with her friends and Hyperion, while during the other time she visited her restaurant and made sure she was seen by the guests.

On Sunday she tackled her new home, for that purpose she had collected all of the houseelves who were responsible for the upkeep of her buildings and hadn’t had any urgent duties on that day and ordered them to start cleaning the house and repairing as much as possible. She then took a few deep breaths before she went looking for the ghost. She found the woman dressed in start of the 20th century Wizarding clothing in the dining room and introduced herself as the new owner of the house. The woman was at first abrasive to Seraphim until she finally believed that Seraphim didn’t want to banish her but wanted to make an arrangement with her. They agreed that Moira would stay out of the master bedroom and Hyperion’s room but was free to move around the house as much as she liked, though she promised to behave if Seraphim had house guests or was entertaining. In return Moira told Seraphim about the secret passages around the house, which also were repaired by the houseelves. Seraphim then checked out the other rooms and noticed the lavish and beautiful baroque décor that was repaired by the elves, feeling accomplished she left the coordination of the cleaning work force in the hands of the head houseelf for that section, with a firm reminder to not tire themselves out too much.

In the following weeks Seraphim acquired not only five additional houseelves, who were responsible for the manor and grounds but also some antique furniture from the auctions in the ministry and slowly filled the empty house. Ten days after first meeting the family portraits she had them moved to the house by her houseelves. The portraits quite liked the new family home and explored it through the landscape frames that Seraphim had let her houseelves hang up in most of the rooms. Exceptions were the bedrooms, library, bathrooms, kitchen and entrance hall. During this time Hyperion helped her enthusiastically with deciding what to put where and he especially enjoyed furnishing his own room.  
At the urging of the portraits Seraphim had two different libraries, the public one was on the first floor and adjourned to the giant living room, while the hidden one was in one of the rooms that could only be entered through some secret passages deep inside the house. In that one, Seraphim put all the books that the ministry had black listed as well as the more valuable ones, while the official library contained her ever expanding collection of various magical books.

Having furnished the house partially, Seraphim stopped her renting contract and started to move their belongings to the new house. Before she moved in completely she had the floo installed and then the house was warded by goblins and curse breakers of Gringotts. While the protections made a big dent into her savings Seraphim thought that it was necessary.   
Chen Bao who was slowly starting to feel her age moved in with them, the rest of the Bao’s came for a visit only a few weeks later and admired Seraphim’s new home.

Then came the confirmation from Seraphim’s squib lawyer that she had just acquired her neighbor’s property. Happy with the expansion of her property she commissioned anti-muggle charms around the borders and had the houseelves take care of the partial decrepit building and the fields. The potatoes and vegetables were used in the kitchen of O’Connell’s while the cereal was sold to other farmers as animal feed. Seraphim had all of the animals either sold or used as ingredients for her restaurant. The now empty fields were left alone to be turned back into either wood or lawn in the next months and years. The red haired squib wasn’t sure what to do with the farm house but decided to leave it until she had figured it out.

With her latest project finished Seraphim took the time to be a bit lazy and enjoyed a calm long weekend with Hyperion and Chen. They explored the mansion as well as the grounds around it and spent most of the time playing and having fun. In the evenings after Hyperion had fallen asleep Seraphim took the time to work through all her investments up to that time and review her running businesses and employees. It was a lot of work and Seraphim decided not to rush it. Instead she made lists and notes to everything and then tried to figure out what she should do next. The red head had started to like the accomplished feeling when one of her projects came to fruition and with her staff running her business so smoothly she felt that she needed to do something else. Sighing she stretched and moved aside her latest notes concerning the updates she wanted in the restaurant. Seraphim turned her eyes back to the sleeping Hyperion on the couch across her, he was nearly five years old and soon she would have to look for a primary school to teach him reading, writing, counting and basic history. The O’Connell had felt a bit frustrated that there wasn’t a magical primary school in the Wizarding world, which she thought was kind of stupid after all not everyone had the time or knowledge to teach their children those fundamental things and most wizards felt uncomfortable sending their kids to a muggle school.   
Playing around with the problem in her mind, Seraphim started to consider, should she choose this as her next project??? She was making a lot of money through her restaurant and also her percentages in the Knockturn Alley businesses brought a good amount of money. And then Seraphim thought, ‘What the hell’ she had already meddled so much in this world, she may as well continue and mould it like she wanted it to grow. ‘Careful’ Seraphim then warned herself, you sound awfully like Dumbledore, before she tilted her head and thought back on her actions until now over. She hadn’t harmed anyone and it had only brought improvements to the Wizarding World. As long as she didn’t try to foist a prophecy on anyone she was in the clear.

So with fresh ideas Seraphim started to work. For a magical primary school to work she would need good teachers, a completely fleshed out curriculum, and magical families that would sent their children to this school. Time to contact the society ladies Seraphim thought wryly, if she wanted to have this running in four months right at the start of the new semester, she would need any help she could get and the pureblood trophy wives were often bored out of their minds.

When she showed Chen the rough draft she had made for the curriculum, the old woman laughed and shook her head, “And when are you going to run for minister, sweetheart?”

Seraphim joked back, “When Hyperion is out of Hogwarts.”

The two women spent the evening with a bottle of plum wine and discussed other additions to the curriculum as well as a possible location of the primary school.

So Seraphim approached the brunch table of the pureblood Ladies during their bi monthly luncheon. After making certain that they weren’t missing anything she casually brought up the education of her son in Wizarding tradition and that she felt unsure how to proceed, but that she felt that the knowledge was essential to the new heir apparents of the older lines. The pureblood ladies around her vigorously agreed about this and suggested tutors that they used themselves. Seraphim nodded thankfully at this and then lamented about the fact that there wasn’t a Wizarding preschool that could take care of the basics and give the children a chance to socialize before Hogwarts.

Narcissa Malfoy perked up at this statement and looked closer at Seraphim whose eyes were twinkling, the born Black had to grin inwardly, Lucius had been right, Seraphim O’Connell, squib or not was a Slytherin through and through and so she promised out loud to talk with Lucius about establishing Wizarding lessons for pre-Hogwarts students, the other Ladies didn’t need any further prompting and also quickly promised to talk to their husbands about potential lessons for the Wizarding children. Seraphim who was smirking now inwardly also suggested including history, manners, dancing, society, traditions and other forms of magic. She left the excited gaggle of women to their own thoughts while she returned into the back rooms.

The next day she received quite a few letters of pureblood families who agreed with her idea and were talking about creating one themselves if the ministry wasn’t inclined to do it. So Seraphim sent out invitations to her new family home that had thankfully been completely furnished only a few days ago, to discuss the topic in a garden party setting the following weekend. She received confirmation from every single Wizarding family that she had sent an invitation to. Seraphim had taken care to invite a mix of light, neutral and dark families who were all frequenting her restaurant and had children in preschool or primary school age. After some appetizers and mingling Seraphim asked them to take seats at the iron wrought and glass tables allotted around the veranda and introduced her newest project to them. With help of Chen who created the magical flip charts Seraphim showed them what she had planned for the primary school. She received enthusiastic approval from all sides, the curriculum was made out of the basics but the parents could add other classes if they wished like manners, dancing, foreign languages etc. When the topic fell on the location Seraphim offered up the abandoned farm house on her property. Her reasons for that were that the farm house was already big but could be easily added onto; furthermore it was away from muggles so if some accidental magic happened or spells were shown as examples the statue of secrecy wouldn’t be compromised. Some of the pureblood families wanted to offer up their own properties as location for the school when Augusta Longbottom interrupted them all.

“No I think Miss O’Connell’s place is sufficient. Just like her restaurant or Hogwarts, this new school is going to be a place of neutrality. Miss O’Connell has already shown us how prepared she was for this meeting and has even a rough outline for the curriculum. She has a personal interest in this because of her son who will soon start schooling age. Furthermore she is impartial to all of us, simply because before she opened the restaurant she had never met or talked to the majority of the Wizarding families. I feel most confident to leave the establishment of this school to her.”

The was a lot of murmuring around the tables but all of them agreed with her in one way or the other, so Lord Greengrass stood up as the highest neutral lord and addressed Seraphim.

“Miss O’Connell, Dowager Longbottom has brought up some very good points, do you feel capable of taking charge of this project?”

“Yes Lord Greengrass, I am. Dowager Longbottom thank you for the endorsement; I have already given some thought not only about the curriculum but also about the staff and financing of this new school. Besides making the building available I am also prepared to forward the money for the wages of the teaching staff for the first year. Thanks to the endorsement of various witches in this circle I have also a variety of private teachers that I will approach about these teaching positions. I hope that I will be able to present you all with a full curriculum as well as financing plan in four to six weeks.”

“You have given this a lot of thought, why did you invite us if you already have a plan about what to do?” Amelia Bones stated.

“Yes Lady Bones, but what you forget is that this school is for your children as much as my own. Without the approval of the parents nothing is going to happen. Furthermore I would be glad over more ideas concerning the school.” Seraphim explained.

The recently appointed Department heads lips twitched before she smiled approvingly and inclined her head in Seraphim’s direction.

“What about a board for the control of the education?” Lord Davis asked.

“I was thinking about electing every four years a new board and that nobody can be on the board longer than two tenures, before they are blocked for the next ten years. Like this nobody can cry about unfair treatment and corruption.” Seraphim explained.

“And who could be elected?” Lord Abbott asked curious.

“Anyone who is over the age of seventeen, lives in the Wizarding world and has a child for which he or she is responsible.” Seraphim said in a clear voice.

“Interesting, so how are you going to finance the day to day runnings?”

“There will be a fee to pay of course, but like in the day care center, anyone with a second or more children gets staggered rates and I am also thinking about adding a financing department to the school and have them investing money in the name of the school.” Seraphim said.

“You really have thought this through; very well I agree with Dowager Longbottom, we will leave this project to you.” Lord Malfoy stated.

Seraphim nodded in thanks before she said, “Then I will see you all back in four to six weeks when I present you with the finished concept and hopefully a part of the staff?” Seraphim concluded her talk.

After that slowly all the other Wizards left her property.

##  Chapter 11

Chen who had listened to the talks from the back just shook her head and smiled at Seraphim, “Well looks like we have a lot to do in the next month.”

Seraphim smiled and laughed, “Yes it certainly does look like it.”

“What have you planned?”

“The courses that don’t need magic like Math, English, other languages and History will be taught by squibs, while the magical courses will be taught by wizards. I am also thinking about inviting people with different jobs to explain to the kids what options they have.”

Chen nodded at that and they started writing down further things they wanted to include. The following week Seraphim had the houseelves copy some of the class schedules of the muggle schools in London as well as the lesson plans. She then wrote to the private tutors and scheduled job interviews with them. She also sent out job offers to the squibs of which she knew that they had experience with teaching, there were even three primary school teachers under them.  
Additionally Nicholas Prewett and his team of accountants worked overtime to put together the full range of expenses the school would have along with a list of what they deemed save investments that would bring the school small but steady income. In the mean time the houseelf force worked over the farm house and converted it into a school building with appropriate rooms.

In week four Seraphim was presented with the full figures the school would cost and she winced, that was going to hurt her… a lot! Sighing but agreeing before putting it into the folder that she would hand each of the people she had invited for the final presentation of the Wizarding primary school.

For the beginning Seraphim had hired two squib teachers for every year, and unlike the muggle counterpart the primary school lasted for five years and started after their sixth birthday. The non magical courses outweighed the magical ones, but Seraphim had known this from the start. Beside the basic curriculum with English, Math, Geography, Biology and History (both muggle and Wizarding) the students could also choose between additional courses like Wizarding etiquette, foreign languages, dancing, art and music. The classes were spaced out over the whole day, with the core classes in the morning so that the students that only took those could leave before lunch. The entrance hall of the former farm house had four fire places for floo travel and for an additional fee a personal portkey could be created to travel back and forth.

In the subject English they learned to read and write with quills and parchment and in the fourth year they would have a short excursion into muggle writing tools and paper. During Math they not only learned the basics of adding, subtracting and dividing but also a bit of Arithmancy during the fourth and fifth year. Geography not only covered the different muggle territories but also the Wizarding ones. Biology concentrated mostly on non magical plants and animals, but also had some excurses into that field. In history they learned a bit about the muggle time line but concentrated mostly one the Wizarding history, for that Seraphim had commissioned a book from Bathilda Bagshot the renown magical historian and Susan Huntington, an elder squib that had studied history and was now a professor at Oxford that was appropriate for their target age group. These courses were all taught by squibs with the exception of the Arithmancy lessons which would be taken over by one of the private Wizarding tutors.

Suffice to say the initial families that Seraphim had invited were more than enthusiastic. When the question about the starting costs came up, Seraphim gave the stage to Nicholas Prewett who broke down the financing plan for the next ten years along with the tuition and a budget for additional classes in laymen terms. Even with the costs reduced as much as possible, the starting sum was still immense and had Seraphim wincing inwardly. A solution for that problem was handed to her on that evening.

Narcissa Malfoy spoke up only moments after the applause calmed down, “Why don’t we have a charity ball to finance the starting budget? This would spare Miss O’Connell from financing the whole project alone and could possibly speed up the financing time table.”

The wizards around her looked considering and Seraphim smiled happily at Lady Malfoy.

“Where would it be held and who should we invite?” Mrs. Brown asked.

“Why don’t we have it at the school? This would serve as purpose to show the parents where the children would study and a buffet could be set up on the lawn under some tents.” another witch supplied.

“That is a very good idea and to participate the ball cards will cost two galleons per person. There could be tables distributed on which you could make donations for the school.” another excited society lady added.

“Lady Malfoy this is a wonderful solution, would you agree to head this event?” Seraphim asked before the other woman could say more.

“Miss O’Connell it would be my pleasure.” Narcissa said with a nod.

Seraphim smiled and said, “Than I will leave this in your capable hands. Is there anything you want to know or would like to add? No? Than I would say we move into the dining room for dinner.”

XXXXXXXXXXX

In the last month Seraphim had added a giant old wooden table that seated forty guests easily, for the evening she had borrowed three of her cooking house elves from the restaurant.

The evening was a resounding success and only a week later the charity event along with the opening of the school were headlines in the daily Prophet. Thanks to Narcissa Malfoy being in charge and several adds in international papers the massive event was sold out in four days. Anyone who was somebody was on the guest list and in the first hour alone they had the costs from the O’Connell catering, the alcohol and decoration back in. At the end of the evening they had enough money to pay the starting costs and wages of the staff for the next five years, along with ninety advance reservations for children, from which ten were from other countries. Seraphim was now seriously thinking about training more squibs in advance, the reservations were from mostly rich purebloods and a few halfbloods who had been fast enough to get a ticket.

_Dumbledore doesn’t really know what he should make out of the squib woman – but he sees how thorough the curriculum is – when he asks her why it is so strict and exact she looks at him strangely and tells him in front of all teachers that it is to keep a certain standard in the school – that it was required in her preschool because should a teacher fall out that the stand in or successor would know exactly what they had covered and what was expected from him or her – that every school should have something like this in place after all they were responsible of the education of the future generations and should take this as well as the quality control of the lessons very serious – McGonagall and Flitwick approve of her attitude and they discuss the curriculum in depth with Seraphim and the instructors for the being it would be an elective for the higher years while it would be compulsory for the first years this year – there was also going to be a wizard tradition class once a week that everybody could visit if they wanted – additional scripts with basic manners and behavior patterns would be available in the library and the common rooms – an assortment of electives would also be introduced this year – dancing, foreign languages as well as lectures of different kind of jobs every month as well as work shop’s- to help them decide what they wanted to do-_

When on the next day the event was on the front page along with the curriculum and tuition, the squibs she had left in charge of the correspondence for the school were swarmed by owls. In a week every last place in the classes were filled out and there was a three parchment long waiting list from all over Europe and England.

As a result another five squibs were hired and started to be trained, one for each year. It was thankfully only the beginning of June and so Seraphim had plenty of time to hire additional teachers and staff.

The hype around the Wizarding primary school that hadn’t even opened yet made Seraphim suddenly a very well known public figure, even her status as squib didn’t stop this. The ministry workers started to link her person with the increase of wealth, prestige and were more than happy to change some laws concerning squibs in her favor and also pushed through the licenses that she needed to open the school and create portkeys.   
The less strict laws concerning squibs increased the return of the squibs to the British Wizarding world even more, which led to more taxes that the ministry received and also increased the percentage of magical babies that were born to squib couples that found each other through work. This led to Seraphim having the full backing of the families that had been shamed by giving birth to a squib, when they now had magical grandchildren that would continue their line.

But not only the British squibs returned to the British Wizarding World, a squib immigration wave from all over Europe was the result of Seraphim’s publicity. Suddenly French, Bulgarian, German and other countries squibs stood in front of her official building in Knockturn Alley and asked for jobs. The best suited were hired as language teachers while the rest started to work alongside the British squibs in her restaurant, shops and bureaus all over Britain. Seraphim even allowed them to build their houses on her grounds not far from the school for a small monthly payment.   
Before the first semester of the school year ended more and more families built their houses on her grounds and like that she accidently established a new Wizarding village, because soon the muggleborn and halfblood families followed, which led to Seraphim building a squib run grocery store, beside an apothecary and a magical cloth shop of a muggleborn.

Thanks to the fact that Seraphim hadn’t had to pay for the start of the primary school she used the money to buy more property. Especially the woods bordering onto her properties, the establishment of the Wizarding village Palladium, a tribute to her name Seraphim, had given her another idea. Her grounds weren’t so far away from Hogwarts and there were massive amounts of woods around them, due to the many Wizarding children and general happiness, some wizards claimed to have seen Unicorns and other magical animals. So Seraphim bought more and more properties around them and let them go feral and at the end of the first year of the primary school, she had Goblins and curse breakers lay Rune wards along her property border to stop muggles from entering and magical creatures from wandering out of the woods.   
At the begin of the new year a herd of Unicorns was sighted not far away from the school and the teachers took the children to watch them. The pure animals came closer and even let themselves be touched by the innocent and wide eyed children.

_Seraphim also established a squib school in Palladium, beginning with the age of eleven and going for seven years just like Hogwarts, the curriculum not only contained muggle subjects but also, Wizarding history and other electives, Seraphim did that to further their education and keep them in the magical world. It had the desired effect, all the magical families with squib children sent them to be educated in Palladium and within in a few years it became all the rage to have a squib personal assistant to help with paperwork and scheduling of the meetings._

After the first Unicorn herd was seen more and more magical animals followed and soon the woods around Palladium were full with them. To keep the Wizarding population and especially the children safe Seraphim thought about hiring some ground keepers from Russia when she heard about a celebrated magical creatures’ expert being turned into a werewolf before killing his attacker and taking over his pack. Said new werewolf was instantly fired from his job at the research facility and now in a desperate need of a job to be able to take care of his five werewolf strong pack.

Seeing her chance Seraphim wrote Ignotus Bletchley a letter with a job offer. Only a day later said offer was countered with an invitation to a pub in Glasgow to which Seraphim agreed reluctantly.

When she arrived in the late afternoon in the dimly lit but surprisingly clean establishment only a few people were there. The red head recognized Ignotus Bletchley instantly the moment she saw the still raw scratches over his face and determinedly made her way over.

“Mr. Bletchley, Seraphim O’Connell, I wrote you about the job offer?”

The well muscled man in his forties looked slightly disbelieving when he took in her small stature in comparison to him.

“Right… so that wasn’t a prank?”

“No Mr. Bletchley, most certainly not, I am in need of your expertise.”

Ignotus snorted, “My expertise… and you are aware of my new status as werewolf?” he asked somewhat bitterly.

Seraphim rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand for him to shake and said with a sugary voice, “Hello, my name is Seraphim O’Connell, I am a squib.”

The man in front of her looked surprised at her and then shook her hand before he grinned, “Nice to meet you.”

Behind him a younger man turned and looked into her face before he said, “I will be damned, the squib O’Connell.”

“The who?” Ignotus asked confused.

“That’s the lady who is responsible for the return of the squibs, where were you in the last two years? She was in the Daily Prophet nearly every other month.”

“I was working on my thesis in the Tundra.” Bletchley said a bit annoyed, his voice more growl than anything else, the younger man instantly offered him his neck.

“Anyway… this is about a job?” Bletchley asked when he turned back to the pretty red head in front of him.

“Yes, you see I am in need of a groundkeeper or more, in the last few months more and more magical creatures have started to live in the forest around Palladium and I need someone who knows what he is doing and is strong enough to deal with the more dangerous animals without killing them.” Seraphim explained.

“Interesting.” Bletchley murmured while he kept his eyes on Seraphim.

“I take it the papers are correct for once and you have taken over a pack?”

Bletchley just nodded.

“Very well, than this offer is for the whole pack, the woods are quite extensive and I am thinking about adding onto them in the future, furthermore I offer you wolfsbane potion and or a secure location to turn at full moon.”

“What’s the catch?” Bletchley asked mistrustful.

“You will move onto the grounds to be available 24/7, your pack will also be required to take additional courses in magical care and I have the right to send you to other reservations to collect experience for the job. Holidays while possible, should be scheduled around the school semesters.” Seraphim laid down the rules.

“What are you paying us?” the magical creatures’ expert asked still unbelievingly.

As an answer Seraphim wrote down a number for him and then for the other members of his pack.

“Are you serious???” the wizard asked, he had never thought that he would receive such an amount again after turning into a werewolf.

The woman in front of him was willing to pay him what he had earned as a wizard, his pack mates would receive what apprentices became after their second year of internship. The red head nodded seriously. There was no lie in her scent, only her own smell and a subtle perfume that didn’t aggravate his sense of smell, on her clothes were also the scent of a young child, hers from the similar scent that he picked up.

“We will take the job.” Bletchley decided out of nowhere.

“Good.” Seraphim said and took out some Wizarding binding contracts.

She handed the paperwork over to the man in front of her; he checked the papers thoroughly for any fool play before nodding and signing his. An instant later the man on the next table, along with two other men and two women came closer and also signed the contracts.

Seraphim smiled at them before shook their hands and they agreed to meet her at six pm at the Palladium apparation point. Now that she finally had ground keepers, Seraphim next stop was again Gringotts, during the last two years she had developed a rather amiable relationship with the surly creatures and she was waved through the entrance hall to the bureaus in the back. She there commissioned the warded area for the werewolves but didn’t give any specifics, she would have talk with Bletchley’s pack in the evening. Thankfully there were still three weeks to the next full moon and so she had plenty of time. Having finished with Gringotts, Seraphim made a quick stop at the Inventor’s lodge were she commissioned a continuing order of wolfs bane potion from her most talented brewer. Feeling accomplished Seraphim returned to her own home, where she gave the order to prepare six guest rooms in one of the annexes, for the next two or so weeks the pack would reside in there until they had built their own houses.

Sharply at six Seraphim heard apparation cracks and found herself looking in the slightly gaunt faces of the werewolves. Hyperion next to her shot them some curious glances, she had prepared him for their arrival and had always made sure that he didn’t develop an irrational fear against any magical creature. Still he was a bit shy and half hid behind her leg.

“Mr. Bletchley.”

“Miss O’Connell and who is that?”

“This is Hyperion, my son. Don’t mind him he is always shy around strangers.” Seraphim explained, Hyperion protested in a squeaky voice behind her.

The werewolves chuckled and then looked questioningly at her.

“You will stay at my place until you have built your own houses on the grounds.” Seraphim explained while she lifted Hyperion on her hip, he was thankfully still light enough to carry even though he was already six years old.

The werewolves seemed surprised but didn’t say anything. Seraphim led them up the brick road that the houseelves had made only six months ago and then quickly showed them were they could put their things before leading them up to the main house to have dinner.

In the next two hours mother and son thoroughly charmed the werewolf pack and after Hyperion fell half asleep on the couch Seraphim carried him up into his room.

After dinner she then showed the werewolves a map of her grounds and also talked about the animals that had been sighted. The younger of the two females started to take notes, she had been in her second to last year of Hogwarts when she was bitten and her parents refused to pay for her upkeep after that and so she had been forced to work and join a pack for protection. The newest Alpha was the best thing that could have happened to them in her opinion. Shortly after half past nine the werewolf pack returned to their rooms to sleep for the night.

In the next two weeks they explored the woods and established themselves in the village, after being introduced to the villagers by Seraphim, a lot of the inhabitants were still distrustful concerning them, but because Seraphim had hired them and vouched for them they felt a lot more safe than they normally would have. They all saw Seraphim as a bit eccentric but knew most definitely that she would never put anyone of them or the children in the school in danger, least of all her own son.

Bletchley’s pack built their homes on the edge of the woods on the end of the village. The daily contact with the villagers relaxed the relations between them and some months later nobody batted an eyelash when they saw them at the grocer ordering meat or talking to one of the children running around. Bletchley had started to give some introduction courses for magical care and while he looked terrifying the children found him and his talks fascinating. When it finally came out that he was a werewolf none of the children reacted violently or with fear, they were a little bit more cautious for the rest of the week, before they shrugged their shoulders and returned to treat him with hero worship.

The warded enclosure was finished a week after the werewolf pack had arrived in Palladium, Bletchley and his pack mates had decided on which spot they wanted to have it as well as the size of the enclosure. At the recommendation of the curse breakers, there were also anti apparation wards in place that would stop anybody from accidently apparating into the enclosure during full moon, there were also wards that prevented anybody else but common animals and werewolves from entering it.  
Thanks to the wolfs bane potion and the big territory they could roam, the Bletchley pack only felt exhausted and slightly sore on the next day instead of dead tired and in pain which led to an overall increasing of their health. Thanks to the decent wages they now made, all of them also wore decent clothes and shoes and didn’t look like vagabonds anymore. With the exception of Bletchley, who had the scars in his face nobody would recognize them as werewolves on the first glance.

XXXXXXX

The community is still growing and soon there are half-Veela’s, wizards with giant ancestry moving into the village, the inhabitants barely bat an eyebrow anymore and just shrugged with their shoulders. Seraphim’s open acceptance of anyone and anything didn’t sit well with some of the more extreme pureblood fractions and try to put a stop on this integration, Seraphim’s lawyer got wind of this action and advised Seraphim to do something against it before the voices became too loud. As a result she filled the pocket of the right people with some endorsements and the resistance ended somewhat abruptly and Seraphim used the chance to get some of the employment laws for werewolves loosened, she didn’t dare to touch the registration laws with the still somewhat distrustful public. As a result more and more werewolves come to her when looking for a job. Seraphim shrugged inwardly and used the additional workforce.   
Some of the more educated ones are sent to different magical creature reservation around the planet to learn and bring back new species.

In the primary school the children also get introduced to different humanoid and intelligent magical creatures like werewolves, Veelas and even goblins, who Seraphim has to pay a hefty sum for their visits.

 

 

_they bring back a lot of species and the woods are named Hope forest - the laws for employment and registration of werewolves are loosened –which leads to them receiving more income and paying more taxes – the economy is on a rise – Seraphim is one of the richest people in England –_

 

 

_One day Remus Lupin comes to her for a job – she agrees and when she asks what he can do she at first uses him in the ground keeper team before she makes him a teacher to the adult werewolves and squibs – because of the various races and cultures that live peacefully together they get a lot of international attention and people from all over the world are sent to them to be trained in taking care of magical creatures and interaction with other races – it becomes the showcase of the British Ministry with Seraphim as the poster girl – the British high society falls over themselves to be part of it and Seraphim can influence the laws and registrations in favor of equality without the purebloods noticing too much because they make more money than before –_

 

_She gets herself a lawyer, Maximilian Clearwater that has a very good reputation in the WW and he advises her a lot and finds loopholes to make her plans happen-_

_In the year Hyperion turn 8 she held’s a very passionate speech in front of the Wizgamot, it’s not the whole one and the members are carefully chosen – she tells them how she feels a deep regret that she has never been able to do magic but that she can’t understand why the wizards limit themselves in forbidding nature magic – she gives them examples from around the world and that nearly every country allowed it and that Britain limited themselves and their children’s imagination and power with forbidding the old arts because they make the muggleborns uncomfortable – she tells them that the only reason they are uncomfortable is because they never learned it and they felt left out of it and what you don’t know you fear – she admits freely that she is still frightened from some day to day magic but that she has learned to understand it since then and that it had opened her eyes to a lot of wonderful things and that for the sake of her son she wanted to learn and experience those things – that they should do this for the sake of their children and the future magical generations – the vote is nearly ¾ in favor of nature magic – the courses are already finished in the preschool and the Wizgamot and school board put her in charge of building up the curriculum for nature magic – she gets help from a few very old and traditional families who still practiced them although it had been forbidden –_

_Hyperion who is happy to go to school is also a lot in the public light because he is her son – he is now 9 years old – he thrives under her attention and is number one in the class and magically the most powerful child_

_Remus is visibly shaken when he sees Hyperion for the first time but hides it very well – he asks after Hyperion’s father and Seraphim tells him the truth that she had found Hyperion in a muggle orphanage and had blood adopted him because of her inability to have children – because he doesn’t have the lightning bolt scar he ignores the similarity_

_In the mean time Seraphim had hired some mercenaries to deal with the Voldemort problem – they had tracked his movements through Transylvania and captured the spirit inside a soul binding container – after that they systematically tracked down the other shards – the ring was destroyed as the next Horcrux, after that they broke into the Black house and got the locket out without alerting the portrait or the houseelf – the same happened with the diadem in Hogwarts, Seraphim told them about the entrance through Honeydukes – all of the Horcruxes were destroyed only the Diary and the cup were left_

_Seraphim could get the cup through sheer luck – because of her adjusting the laws some of the more shady and less known pureblood families lost a lot of money and could convince the minister that the estates, money and titles should be seized from the death eaters that were rotting in Azkaban – the Minister agreed to this and funnily enough the O’Connell’s were second cousins of the Lestrange’s because of a marriage only two generation’s ago and with that there was only one Horcrux left – the seizing had also the effect of the Goblins interfering because the current Lord Black sat in Azkaban without a trial – this enraged the purebloods because although all were sure that he was guilty a trial had to be made for their conscience – and so Sirius Black became a trial in which he told under Veritaserum that he was innocent – the backslash of this made huge circles – everybody was crying out for blood – especially the purebloods who suddenly saw their rights compromised if even the Lord Black could land in prison without trial –_

_Sirius was transferred to St. Mungos and then demanded to see his godson – Dumbledore wanted to stop him but the Ministry who was now falling over themselves to be of assistance told him that the guardian ship of Harry Potter was Black’s legal right – and so Dumbledore led him to the Dursley’s – who asked him if he was stupid that they didn’t have their nephew – that they had found a child yes but without a letter and that they have given him to the orphanage – Sirius nearly decks the old headmaster and the child services of the MoM are appalled of this gross lack of judgment – Vernon tells them were he brought the boy and then the family is left alone – at the orphanage the social workers tell them that they had a boy in that age but that he had been adopted a year later by a woman and was now her son – Sirius is still angry but he calms down – the ministry workers tell him that they would have to be cautious about this situation because even if it was Sirius right to have Harry with him – the boy wouldn’t take kindly to be just taken away from this woman – the halfblood social worker explains that most adoptive parents were even more careful and loving with their children because of one reason or another they couldn’t have their own and that it would hurt Harry’s growing process if he was subjected to such a dramatic experience –Sirius just nods stone cold – the social worker find out the name and when Remus hears it he curses – Sirius turns around and asks why – he tells him that he had known Harry for the last 3 years without knowing that he was Harry – that Seraphim O’Connell had blood adopted him when he had been five years old and that he was now Hyperion Evangelos O’Connell – the magical social workers eyes become big because this is a really high profile case now – Sirius had heard about the squib who had helped and changed the Wizarding world so much and looks defeated –_

“Do you think she will let me see him?” he asked

Remus who just shrugged helplessly but told him that Seraphim was a very fair woman and that she really loved Hyperion a lot.

Dumbledore wasn’t there when they found out but was at the ministry to try to do damage control but the news are already out that he had lost the boy who lived and had not even once checked on him in the last 8 years.

_Remus, the social worker and Sirius arrive in Palladium and make their way to Seraphim’s bureau – they are told to go through the floo after the social worker kindly tells the secretary that it is about her adoption of her son –Seraphim had already expected Sirius but was still caught off guard – after she received the message from her secretary she immediately floos her lawyer who comes through the fire place –_

_Seraphim receives her guests and asks Remus what he is doing here – she didn’t expect him to come along and so the confusion is genuine – they sit all down and the social worker fills her in on Hyperion being Harry Potter – her eyes widen but not because of the knowledge but because how fast they had found out after finding a trail – she then sighs and puts her head into her hand_ –

“That explains the curse scar.”

“Curse scar?”

“Yes after I adopted Hyperion I always had a bad feeling when I came close to that scar, because none of the healers here in Britain took me seriously when I told them about it I went to China. The sorcerer there told me that it was a dangerous piece of magic that would have done a lot of damage if left alone; he removed it and destroyed it. I never really questioned it’s origins.“

“It was a lightning bolt scar, how many kids do have that.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Huh?”

“It wasn’t, before I adopted Hyperion he had an accident with another toddler and a pair of scissor, the scar was a bit star shaped and looked like from a car accident so I didn’t bother to question it.”

Seraphim really hadn’t questioned that piece of pure luck before but Remus was right it would have been hard to explain if the scar had been still a lightning bolt when she adopted Harry. As proof Seraphim walked over to a cabinet and took out the photo album that she had made right after starting to foster Harry. On the first picture she was standing with him in her arms, his forehead still a bit raw.

_– the wizards and witch seem to understand her excuse – it really looked nothing like before –_

“What is going to happen now, Mr. Black I understand that you want Hyper… I mean Harry but he IS my son and I won’t give him up without a fight!” the last part was said with steel in her voice.

Sirius just bowed his head slightly, his shoulders were slumped, “I… would you let me visit him?”

Sirius looked so defeated and alone it tucked on Seraphim’s heart, impulsively she stood up and sat down beside the Lord Black before she placed her hand on his shoulder and told him gently smiling, “Of course not, you can visit him as often and as long as you wish. I don’t mind as long as the ground rules are followed.”

Sirius looked hopeful at that, “What are those?”

“Hyperion’s has a fixed bed time under the week, homework comes before playing, sugar highs are to be avoided in my general vicinity and nothing too dangerous please.”

Sirius grinned at that, “I think that can be arranged.”

Across from them Remus and the social worker both sighed in relief, they were glad that the situation could be solved so easily, they didn’t want to think about the consequences should the two have been unable to come to a solution.

“May I ask who the current godfather is?” Sirius asked curiously, now that he was certain that he would have part in Harry’s upbringing, he was interested in the people around the boy.

“He doesn’t have one.” Seraphim said, before her lips quirked slightly and she continued, “Why don’t we install or reinstall you as his godfather, that would also have the benefit of having solved the custody problem. Should something happen to me you would be once more the next in line of taking care of him.”

Sirius couldn’t say anything and just nodded, he hadn’t expected a lot out of this meeting as soon as he found out who the adoptive mother was, that she even allowed him to take up his godfather role struck him speechless.

“Max? Would you please prepare the documents for Mr. Black and have them sent over?”

“Of course Seraphim, do you need me here any longer?” her lawyer answered.

“No. Thank you for your assistance.”

Max just snorted, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Before he nodded to the others and left via floo.

“Well then if we aren’t needed any longer we will also take our leave.” The senior child service officer said, before he and his colleague left, also via floo.

Both Remus and Sirius now looked unsure at Seraphim who stood up and showed them into the more private part of the manor. As she had thought Hyperion was playing with his newest wizard figurines.

“Mom?” her beautiful son asked curiously.

“Please come to me for a moment Hyperion… Sweetheart, you remember how nobody had an idea who your parents were?” Seraphim asked carefully, while she stroked through his long hair.

Hyperion nodded cautiously, while he looked confused at Remus and the unknown man by his side.

“Well the ministry just found out that your birth parents were Lily and James Potter.”

Hyperion furrowed his eyebrows; he had copied one of her worst habits.

“Your birth name was Harry Potter, honey.”

Now Hyperion looked really confused, “Harry Potter? But I never did anything that they wrote in those books!”

“Yes well, we will have to talk to those authors as well, but first I want to introduce you to your godfather Sirius Black.” Seraphim said while she nodded at Sirius.

Hyperion looked at first curiously before it turned into fear and he clasped onto Seraphim’s robes, “You aren’t going to take me away from mum are you? I won’t allow it. Mum tell him no!”

Sirius looked hurt but also had a resigned understanding beneath it, “Don’t worry Harry, your mum would have never allowed this, but if you agree I would like to spend some time with you, your parents were some of my closest friends.”

Reluctantly Hyperion released Seraphims robe before he took a step away and took a closer look at Sirius.

“Just so you know my name is Hyperion.” He stated calmly while he waited for a reaction.

“Hyperion then.” Sirius agreed quickly.

“Sweetheart you know Remus already, but he was also a very close friend from your birth parents.” Seraphim said softly while she combed through his hair once more.

Hyperion half heartily tried to make her stop while his unique eyes landed on the werewolf, who smiled at him in return. The next two hours Hyperion spent questioning the two men about his birth parents and in turn talked about his own adventures. Sirius was fascinated with the small boy, he was so smart and while he had some of James characteristics most of his personality seemed to be from Lily and also Seraphim, he even moved like her and had some of her habits. He also had her looks; the red hair was definitely O’Connell, as was the light blue ring around his jade colored eyes, the adoption ritual had given him quite a lot of her features and he looked more aristocratic than James had, but if he didn’t misinterpreted the mischievous light in his eyes, he could be a future prankster. The thing that hadn’t changed at all was the emotions his delighted laughter produced in him, Sirius felt content and at ease. Something only a Potter home; be it James’ parents or his own house had elicited in him. Hyperion was also quite smart; he reacted to the smallest changes in tone and body language and avoided certain topics as soon as he noticed that they made Sirius uncomfortable. Another thing that was interesting was that for the first hour he periodically searched with his eyes for his mother before he relaxed once more. Said woman had sat down on one of the sofas at the wall and was now working through a stack of paperwork. Sirius appreciated that she didn’t try to insert herself into this first interaction with his godson and influence Hyperion’s opinion; it was quite easy to see how important her opinion was to the boy.

Shortly before lunch Seraphim gave Rubbles orders to set the balcony table for four. They moved the conversation to the table and while Sirius still only concentrated on Hyperion, Remus involved her into a conversation about the newest group of interns.

After dinner Seraphim showed both Remus and Sirius a rough draft of a statement for the Daily Prophet about Hyperion’s ancestry and their solution. To the question of why from Sirius she just stated that she wanted to deal with the media on her terms and not on theirs, after a short inner debate Sirius agreed.

“Are you going to send it of right away?”

“God, no. I will send it this evening, after having my PR people going over it.”

Sirius just raised his eyebrow at this and then shrugged his shoulders; it was her decision after all.

Hyperion than piped up, “So if I’m Harry Potter and at the same time Hyperion O’Connell, what should I name myself then?”

“Good question, which name would you prefer?” Seraphim asked.

“I like Hyperion, I’m used to it and YOU gave me that name, the rest doesn’t matter, but you can have more than two names or?”

“Hhm, yes you can, what about Hyperion James Evangelos Potter-O’Connell?”

“Ugh that’s long.”, Hyperion said distasteful.

“Well only for your official documents. For daily use we could shorten it. Let’s say Hyperion Potter.”

“Hhm, Hyperion Potter, yeah that’s fine.” Hyperion said before he shrugged with his shoulders, he liked the fact that he now had a part of his birth parents in his name even though he still felt more like an O’Connell.

 

 

_Seraphim is happy about this –she then gives an official statement for the daily prophet to ward off speculation or slander, Sirius agrees with what it says and they send it off to the publisher - they visit with Sirius and Remus the graves of the Potters as well as his first home – after that eat at O’Connell’s before they return to Palladium – Seraphim asks Sirius where he is staying and he answers with leaky Cauldron until his house is either fixed up or he has a new one – Seraphim doesn’t accept this and Hyperion is also excited and so Sirius gets his things from the Leaky Cauldron and uses the O’Connell manor as place to sleep for the night – he is happy that everything turned in his favor_

_The next day the news are on the front page and Seraphim is bombarded with letters and howlers – she sorts through them and is then visited by Dumbledore, thankfully Sirius comes at that moment with Hyperion after having picked him up from preschool– he tells the headmaster exactly what he thinks of his presence and his lack of judgment and tells him to leave and stop harassing Seraphim – the three of them have lunch in one of the café’s owned by Seraphim and they discuss their plans for today – Hyperion wants to visit Diagon Alley, as does Sirius – Seraphim has cleared her afternoon after the headache inducing morning – Sirius moans over the fact that he will have to sort legalities through and update his portfolio – Hyperion is interested and asks some pretty good questions –Sirius is astonished and Hyperion just shrugs and tells him that his mum was good at investing and had taught him from small age – Seraphim offers to help which Sirius gladly accepts – they visit Gringotts and get all the papers and take inventory in the faults – after that they make their way to the Quidditch shop where Sirius buys two state of the art brooms for him and Hyperion – Seraphim doesn’t object and tells him that she is glad that somebody will teach Hyperion what she can’t but still cautions them – they get outfitted at LeNoir’s and after a quick visit with O’Connell’s they return to the Manor – Sirius and Harry try out the brooms while Seraphim starts to sort through the Black portfolio – she makes note of what would have to be updated and renewed and also what standard withdrawals would have to be canceled – she then orders sandwiches and something to drink and calls the two boys down – during eating they tell her about how Hyperion has a natural talent for flying and then they discuss what would have to be done at the bank the next morning – she had put the properties to the side to inspect later – they would do this the next day if Sirius was okay with it – Sirius just smiles and tells her that she can do what she wants and he would leave it in her capable hands – she just snorts sighs and agrees – Sirius and Hyperion get inside to change and clean up before the three of them go into Muggle London to watch a movie – the evening is spent with some Wizarding chess on Sirius and Hyperion’s side and a book in Seraphim’s case –_

_The next day they (Sirius & Seraphim) inspect the Black Manor that is funnily enough only 2 kilometers away from Palladium – it is easy for Seraphim to convince Sirius to buy the land between the Manor and her own property – they take a look around and while it will take some work the manor is in workable condition even if a bit darkish – Sirius get’s depressed as soon as he sees those colors and insignias on the wall and is sullen the whole time – Seraphim takes him outside and gently tells him that he doesn’t have to live here or on any other Black property and that he was welcome to stay in the O’Connell Manor as long as he lived, Sirius says that he can’t accept that and Seraphim only rolls her eyes and tells him to shut up and apparate them back – she would take over any renovations as well as the managing of the portfolio – _

“Bossy, bossy” Sirius teased her before he gave her a gentle peck on the lips and told her thank you with soft eyes.

Seraphim blushed and shrugged her shoulders before saying. “You are family now Sirius and I take care of my family.”

_Before she drags him to lunch – from the former houseelf battalion is only Kreacher left alive – Seraphim hires some new elves for Sirius and they takes the managing and repairing of the estates over –_

_Their lunch is interrupted by Dumbledore again who tries to convince Seraphim of moving Harry to the Dursleys because of Voldemort – Seraphim laughs him into the face and tells him that as long as there was no 100% proof of Voldemort being active here in Britain he can put his so called advise were the sun didn’t shine, she would raise her son like she and Sirius thought best – and with that they leave the old man standing_

_Back in the Manor Sirius asks her about her wording and she sighs – she then told him how a few years back some of her men had come across a spirit Voldemort in Transylvania and how they had imprisoned it – she told him that she had kept him suspended like this since then – she also tells him how the black magic in Hyperion’s forehead had been a Horcrux and how she had the suspicion that Voldemort had made more –Sirius is appalled about this but agrees that they wouldn’t put this on the shoulders of a nine year old and would leave this to experts – Seraphim’s mercenaries –_

_Throughout the weeks Sirius becomes the male influence that had missed in Hyperion’s life, also Remus became more important – Seraphim was glad about this and left the two former Marauders to educate Mr. Potter about mischief and mayhem – in the mean time her mercenaries watch Malfoy Manor and test the wards – to give them an opportunity Seraphim holds a ball to finance a new magical research facility that would concentrate on magical plants close to Palladium – everyone who was someone came – even a lot of foreign delegations – Seraphim had been learning a lot of languages the last few years – she had made a lot of contacts throughout the magical world and has earned their respect – especially from the other races_

_Sirius and Hyperion help her with greeting the guests – the ball is held in the preschool which has garnered a lot of attention from the French who were thinking about doing something similar_

_The mercenaries can break into Malfoy Manor – are disillusioned – find the vault under the floor and the diary – leave again – nothing is disturbed – they left a fake – the Horcruxes are all destroyed – on Beltane (1 st Mai 1991) – Voldemort’s last soul shard is destroyed through a ritual from Chinese wizards – Seraphim feels relieved, it is over before it even began – around Britain the Dark Mark vanishes completely from the hands of the former Death Eaters – Hyperion get’s his letter to Hogwarts with his full and correct name (Hyperion ´,…) – _

_epilog: Seraphim, Remus, Sirius and Chen say goodbye to an excited Hyperion and his friends._


	9. HP Ophelia

Hermione and Ophelia Granger were identical twins.

To a stranger they looked completely identical from the frizzy hair to their toes and they were right more or less. The only true difference between the two was the way they held themselves and walked. Hermione always hurried from one place to the next and was bent over her books with her hair falling into her eyes. Ophelia on the other hand walked straight and proud, she didn’t hurry, she glided through the room and always took care of how she presented herself to a room.

As long as Pheli could remember Hermione had always looked up to authority, it had started in kindergarten and went through primary school, where it only got worse. This would have normally not bothered Ophelia because while Hermione was a bit of a teacher’s pet she was still Hermione, her little twin sister that was very naïve at times and she loved her. The problem was that the other kids didn’t like that, nobody really liked a teacher’s pet. The kids in their age bracket had always sneered at Mione and insulted her and Ophelia could not let that continue. And so she started to slowly manipulate the children and adults around them. It wasn’t hard for her, people were easy to read and then you had only to make sure that they thought it was their idea what they were doing. And so with time Ophelia became the popular one, the cool one, the one that was always in the background but somehow everybody wanted her approval. This gave Hermione a much needed reprieve from all the mean things that were thrown at her. Hermione wasn’t stupid, she understood what her sister was doing and while she didn’t approve of the method she was secretly glad what Ophelia did for her.

_Ophelia Granger is Hermione’s older twin sister, she is six minutes older and very protective of Hermione, they go to Hogwarts – Ophelia is sorted into Slytherin, not only has she to survive in the House of snakes but she also has to protect her little sister and her friends from the dark times that are coming._

_She establishes herself in Slytherin right from the beginning, learns spells as fast as she can while Hermione also likes to read the theory behind them, only answers questions when asked – puts Pansy in her place – earns a lot of hatred but also a lot of approval in Slytherin – Draco tries to put her down – she uses curses and words to get him back for what he said – meets up with Hermione every other day in the library – is unsure how to handle the fact that her sister is without buffer to other children their age – cautiously warns her from showing off too much - is very angry about Halloween and that Hermione nearly got killed – she catches Ron alone and tells him exactly what she is going to do with him should something like this happen again – meets with Hermione every other day in the library – they are twins, even if they are in Slytherin and Gryffindor it’s not going to separate them – Ophelia starts to develop a court out of Ravenclaws, halfblood Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, the Gryffindors don’t really know what to think about her and so avoid her more or less – with exception of the Weasley twins – Ophelia gives them the nickname Mischief and Mayhem and they call her their favorite Slytherin or ice queen – Hermione, Ron and Harry become the golden trio of Gryffindor – they are introduced to her – she likes Harry more, still calls them both Potter and Weasley – during the Winter holidays they go home to their parents – Ophelia takes the opportunity and visits Diagon Alley as often as possible – she learned from her court more about the society and now leads Hermione into it – they use the Knight bus as well as their parents open up bank accounts for them – it’s a lot cheaper than always to convert money – Ophelia buys books about traditions and etiquette while Hermione buys books for academics – they return to Hogwarts – smuggle out the dragon – get caught and then stop Quirrel from getting the Philosopher stone –win the House cup to Ophelia’s frustration_

_During the summer holidays they can’t reach Harry – Hermione is worried, Ophelia suggests to write Ron and if he still didn’t answer by his birthday to visit him – they get a letter from Ron that Harry is at their place and that they had to rescue him – Ophelia has a very bad feeling about the muggles when she reads about how Harry was locked in – they meet up to get their school supplies, Ophelia makes her way to Madame Malkin’s to get wizarding robes for the daily usage – she gets a pair for Hermione too – then she visits Flourish and Blott’s to see Draco’s father insult her parents and Harry – she intervenes and introduces herself and insults him and Draco through the flower with a smile as icy as his wife – Lucius is reminded of Narcissa and how she was as a girl and laments the fact that Ophelia is a muggleborn – he turns to Mr. Weasley and then they start to fight – which Ophelia watches with a raised eyebrow – she is then introduced to the Weasleys –_

_back at Hogwarts Draco calls Hermione a filthy mudblood – which brings Hermione to tears – Ophelia humiliates Draco in front of the whole Slytherin house but keeps it under wraps from the rest of the public- she also whispers in his ear that should he ever try to use that word against her sister again she is going to make him hurt, very very badly – from then on she has to be very careful – she proofs herself in classes and increases her spell repertoire – then Halloween happens and Draco is very smug in her presence – she quickly disabuses the fact that she is intimidated but still becomes more paranoid - Ophelia doesn’t trust Lockhart – she finds Hermione’s crush embarrassing and points out all the inconsistencies in his books – she asks Flitwick about additional Charms lessons and maybe one or two duel lessons – he reluctantly agrees but when she turns out to be a gifted dueler he gives her private lessons every two weeks – Ophelia’s skills increase so much that even fourth year Slytherins are starting to be more careful around her – Hermione asks Binns about the Chamber of Secrets – Harry thinks Draco is the heir of Slytherin – they start to brew poly juice potion because they don’t want to pull Ophelia into this – who things they are ridiculous –Harry is discovered to speak parseltongue – the Slytherins aren’t sure what to think about that – Ophelia just rolls her eyes, she KNOWS Harry is not the heir of Slytherin - Hermione has the cat hair accident during the winter holidays that they spent all at Hogwarts because their parents are on a conference – more students are petrified – than Hermione gets petrified – Ophelia is furious, when Draco grins at her she stuns him and hangs him up in the common room but not before she uses the most humiliating spells she knows – after that she stalks to the Gryffindor common room and drags both Ron and Harry down into the library – and then to Hermione – they find the sheet – they draw their conclusions – they overhear the teachers about Ginny – they enter the Chamber of Secrets with Lockhart – Ron and Ophelia are cut off from Harry – Ophelia spells a way through the stones while Harry continues on – they come after Harry and witness how Riddle’s Horcrux is destroyed – Fawkes helps them out of the tunnel which closes after them – they make their way to the headmaster – Ophelia keeps in the back while Ron and Harry talk – Harry then tricks Malfoy into freeing his elf – Ophelia then talks to Malfoy and tells him that she takes his loss of his house elf as well as a dark magical object as compensation for the petrifying of her sister – Malfoy Sr. leaves in a tizzy –_

Ophelia sighed while she looked down on the _Rue de magique_ , the place was certainly bustling with witches and wizards, behind her her sister was still captivated with the book store and would probably be for a few more hours. The elder of the Granger twins was seriously considering walking further down into the food district when her eyes caught on a strange little shop nearly hidden between all the bigger boutiques. It had something unique to it and with a last glance at Hermione, Ophelia made her way over.

_Hermione and Ophelia spend their summer holidays with their parents in France – they explored the Magical districts of France through the Floo system and a magical guide – Ophelia buys them language lozenges and they learn to speak fluently French – they return and hear about Sirius Black’s outbreak – Ophelia starts to research everything about Black and discovers that he is Potter’s godfather and betrayed his family – she is not happy about that information – they meet up with him at Diagon Alley but she doesn’t say anything about Black yet, Potter is to rash for her tastes – instead she sees how thin he is again after the summer – she now seriously thinks that he is abused by his relatives but when he always redirects her inquiries she leaves it alone – instead she researches potion against malnutrition – they weren’t that hard to brew – she buys the book and the additional potion ingredients before meeting up with Blaise Zabini and Tracy Davies – the two also begun to become closer to her after she increased her social status – Ophelia has been able to convert more and more Slytherins and Ravenclaws as well as notable Hufflepuffs into her group – her association with Potter through her sister also gives her a lot of status with the more light families – also her conduct in wizarding tradition makes her more included in everything – Zabini and Davis are a big help at that – Hermione gets Crookshanks while Ophelia buys herself also a kneazle, a black one she names Gargarmel – Hermione snorts at that –-_

“Crookshanks… not a bad name.” Ophelia said after some careful thinking.

“Not a bad name?” Ron asked incredulous before sending the purring black bundle in her arms a look “You are getting one too?”

“Yes.” Ophelia allowed while she slowly carded her hands through the black kneezle’s fur.

“What’s his or her name?” Harry asked curiously.

“His and it’s Gargarmel.” Ophelia said calmly.

Beside her Hermione snorted “Is he going to hunt smurfs?”

“We will see.” Ophelia answered cheekily while Hermione gently bumped against her shoulder.

 

_at Hogwarts they both get a time turner for their extra hours - Ophelia brews the malnutrition potions and gives them to Harry while they watch Ron and Hermione bicker –he is at first unsure but then thanks her, she gives him a whole load of them for two weeks with the instructions to drink one each day before breakfast until they start to taste gross – she noticed that Lupin is a werewolf but doesn’t say anything instead she asks Harry about showing her how to do the Expecto Patronum, she only gets mist but still keeps working just like him – Ophelia also uses the time turner to get extra sleep and to get extra time to practice and read during the weekend - then the rift between Harry, Ron and Hermione begins because of the Firebolt and then scabbers – Hermione works herself into a frenzy about Hagrid and his hippogriff Buckbeak- she fails because she didn’t tell Ophelia – but she hits Draco when he mocks her – Ophelia grins at Hermione and later tells Draco plainly that he deserved that for being an irresponsible idiot, a daddy’s boy and didn’t know when enough was enough – she hears about the mess around Sirius Black from Hermione after rumors started to fly around the school – she believes them after all there was no reason to NOT believe her sister – at the end of the year Ophelia starts to write to Black – after she hears that he is on the run – she tells him to lay low somewhere warm to recover from the Azkaban and sends him anti malnutrition potions just like she did with Harry – he writes his thanks back but that he would continue to search for Peter – she tells that it’s his decision but that he was surely tired, exhausted and still suffering from the Azkaban effects – he should go somewhere warm and recover before doing anything else – Harry wouldn’t be particular happy if he was caught or got seriously ill because of his search for a traitor – Sirius asks her what she thinks he should do – she tells him to get himself a muggle identity with a credit card and everything – a good one from a muggle forger or the equivalent in the wizarding world– and to get out of the country – somewhere warm either Italy, Spain or Greek – to take a two or three month long holiday on the beach to get a tan, rent a holiday house and (and as strange as it sounded from a fourteen year old girl) get laid – he deserved a break after everything – a week later came the reply that he got the Goblins who could be bribed to get him a legal identity and that he was on his way out of the country – Ophelia also told him to get a post box under a false name in Diagon Alley so that he could be reached even out of the country – Ophelia had gotten that for both Hermione’s and her’s fourteenth birthday – the letters went to the post box to get rid of all enchantments and then were sent directly into another box that they held onto – the fee was reasonable and she really was astonished how few used that – and on the other hand you could sent letters through this box to the post office who posted them for you for a fee – it was ingenious – Hermione gives back her time turner and drops a few classes while Ophelia continues to take all of them and keeps the time turner- she likes the fact that she has additional hours to learn_

_Ophelia spends most of her summer holidays working at Flourish and Blott’s while Hermione is at the Weasleys’, Ophelia gets a discount on books and so can buy a lot more than normally, she also got into contact with a few authors, which would proof useful in the future – she agrees to meet up with Zabini, Davis and Nott at the Quidditch World cup – they have one ticket more because Tracy’s cousin got dragon pox the week before –_

Ophelia’s eyebrow rose while she took in the somewhat strange building in front of her… how the hell did it still stand? Right magic. She walked closer and soon started to hear the shouts and laugher of the Weasley family, her sister and Harry. She couldn’t help but let her mouth twitch upwards, Gryffindors or not that they were an amusing bunch most of the time.

“Pheli!” came the shout from her sister as soon as she came into feeling distance, promptly the redheads and Harry turned around.

Ophelia couldn’t help but enjoy the attention of so many more or less good looking males on her. Poor or not, none of them was ugly or overweight.

“Ophelia, my dear!” Mrs. Weasley greeted her friendly.

“Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, it’s good to see you again.”

“Yes, it is my dear. We were quite disappointed when Hermione wrote that you wouldn’t come.”

“Yes I’m sorry Mr. Weasley but as I said I have a summer job and I would be a dreadful guest if would just up and left every morning.”

While talking Hermione had arrived beside her sister “Did something happen?”

“Mum and Dad decided to visit grandma sooner, they were able to move the plane tickets up so they will take the plane tomorrow instead of next week.”

“Oh… does that mean you will be alone at home?”

“Only for a day or two. Don’t worry.”

“Oh very well.”

“Are you having fun?”

“Well more or less, you know the boys, but Ginny and I have struck up a mutual alliance.”

Ophelia snorted at that amused.

“Alliance indeed. Hello Ginny.”

“Ophelia, and you are sure that you can’t join us? We could make room in my bedroom.”

“Sorry Ginny but no. My job will continue until the end of the week, though I will be at the World Cup, Tracey’s cousin has dragon pox so she offered me the ticket.”

“Hey that’s cool, are you going to visit us?”

“Sure, let’s meet up two hours before the match at the food tents.”

Ginny nodded grinning before she looked up and grabbed the good looking and well muscled red head that had come closer while the three teenagers had talked.

“Ophelia, this is my second eldest brother Charlie. Charlie, this is Ophelia, Hermione’s older twin sister.”

“A pleasure.” He grinned with a slightly flirtatious grin while his eyes quickly traveled over a lot more revealing top than Hermione’s.

“It definitely is.” Ophelia couldn’t help but flirt back.

“Careful Charlie, that snake has fangs.” A teasing voice commented from behind them.

“Fred, my dear what have I told you about warning my victims.” Ophelia purred over her shoulder.

The grin on his face only got bigger while both Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes and left the group.

“Not to do it, but what if we want to be punished?” a slightly higher voice came from her other side.

“Hhm… we will see.” Ophelia said with a smile when the boys put their arms around her.

“Damn.” another voice came from the house, “Boys is there something you have forgot to mention?” the newest red head asked with a devilish grin.

“Bill.” The twins intoned with ear splitting grins.

“Bill Weasley, a pleasure.” The oldest of the Weasley siblings said.

“Ophelia Granger. I love the earring.” She couldn’t help but say.

“Oh yeah?” Bill asked delighted while he sent her a smile that normally sent weaker willed girls to the floor.

“Bill come on!” Fred whined.

“Yeah, this is our snake, get your own!” George finished.

“A Slytherin, boys you are playing with fire here.”

“Fire of the best kind,” Ophelia replied, her voice getting a seductive edge.

“Ugh, do you have to do that?” Ron complained in the back before he shoved another sandwich in his mouth.

“You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to hear it Ronald,” Ophelia replied but carefully freed herself from the twins grip.

Harry laughed slightly before taking the last few steps and engulfed her in a hug; Ophelia had taken great care to make sure that she and Hermione had a tactile relationship with the Potter heir. He really needed as much positive reinforcement as possible.

“And there you see it, the moment we let her go she jumps into the arms of another… Harry how could you!” Fred said dramatically.

Harry just grinned while he continued to hug Ophelia who carefully rubbed his back before letting her hands wander over his rips; the malnourishment wasn’t as bad this year, thanks to the regular care packages they had sent him. After she felt satisfied with that she started to move his head in one direction and then into the other before carefully carding through his hear.

“You are finally growing,” She said satisfied before she released Harry from her hold.

Harry just rolled his eyes good naturedly and then took step back so that Ophelia could get a quick hug in with Ron.

“And you are still growing like a weed I see,” She commented dryly at his added two centimeters.

The youngest male Weasley just grinned and shrugged with his shoulders before taking another bite.

“Are you staying?”

“Maybe for an hour or two but then I have to get home,” Ophelia acquiesced.

“Great, that means we finally can play with even teams.”

 

 

_she visits Hermione and the Weasley for a short time to say hello to everyone and be introduced to the other Weasleys, Fred and George tease her and she teases right back – she tells Hermione that she will return to their parents after the match – Hermione wishes her a nice match and the Ophelia makes her way to her acquaintances – she makes some money through bets after she listened to Fred and George – goes home- reads about the attack on the next day –_

Ophelia nearly spat out her coffee when she read about the attack on the World Cup.

_is frantic enough that she makes her way to the Burrow after her shift, she didn’t tell anything to their parents, she didn’t want to alarm them – there she sees that Hermione is unharmed and hugs her – they tell her what happened and Ophelia scowls, she is not happy about this – Hermione asks her to be careful in Slytherin –Ophelia snorts and tells her that she is ALWAYS careful – she meets up with her friends and they tell her that there is a ball, Tracy and her get robes and she takes one in magenta and pink for Hermione who has the same size as her, it s a nice dress though a bit tamer than hers which is periwinkle blue with silver reflexes and a slit that goes up to her thigh – Blaise sees her in it and stutters – Ophelia just grins and tells him that she takes that as a compliment – Nott looks at her mumbles and then looks away – Ophelia buys shoes and hand bags for both dresses before she leaves Diagon Alley – she gives the dress to her sister after she returned from the Weasleys – Hermione is as excited as her about the ball_

_At Hogwarts they are informed about the Triwizard tournament – Hermione begins her crusade to free house elves – Ophelia drops a book concerning house elf bonds on her desk after she tries to convert her and tell her to check her facts before doing something so rashly and to leave her out of it – she meets Winky who is a free elf – after some consideration she asks her if she wants to become her elf – the drunk elf jumps at the opportunity and bonds with her – Tracy informs Ophelia that she will have to write the ministry to get an authentication as well as a permit and then has to inform the department of underage magic about it to not get a letter during the summer – she does that and shortly before Christmas she gets the confirmation – Tracy’s mother helped her, she is a halfblood– Hermione is upset and doesn’t talk to her – Ophelia gives up after some time – she tells Winky to continue to help the elves at Hogwarts as well as clean her things in her room – the Slytherins from year three up have single rooms – Harry’s name comes out of the cup – everyone but Hermione and Ophelia turn their back on him – Hermione grudgingly starts talking again with Ophelia after she sees how happy Winky is – they help Harry with as much spells as possible and Ophelia starts to drill him in dueling, she has continued her lessons with Flitwick and is now considered on par with seventh years – Ophelia catches Ron and calls him a hypocrite and a jealous brat but leaves it at that, after all it’s not her friendship that he destroyed – Harry has a crush on Cho Chang, Ophelia noticed snorts and tells him that she is shallow, whiny and that she was in love with Cedric Diggory and with that nips his crush in the butt although he still finds her pretty - the first task happens – and then Krum starts to follow Hermione –at first Ophelia isn’t sure what to make out of him before she plainly asks why he is following her sister – he hhms and haws but then admits that he wants to ask her out – Ophelia thinks about it for a moment and then agrees, she also tells him to tell her the reason why – he nods and leaves it at that –Ophelia herself is asked out by a Beauxbatons’ seventh year in the middle of the great hall, Ophelia smiles at him and agrees – the Slytherin girls are particular jealous because it was done so elegantly and correct - she asks Harry if he already got a date – he says no – she tells him to hurry and also asks him if he can dance – he tells no again – she rolls her eyes and tells him that he will have lessons the weeks before the ball to not embarrass his date – he asks Parvati a lot earlier than before – Ron still has no date – Ophelia gives both of them dancing lessons although Parvati doesn’t really need them as well as etiquette lessons – Harry is a lot more confident after that- the Yule ball comes around and Ron still has no date – he panics and asks Padma who agrees – on the Ball night Ophelia leaves four hours before and starts to tame her hair with magic – she learned a lot of hair taming spells throughout her years at Hogwarts and always wears them nice but today is a special day- she turns them into big curls that are partly put up and partly down, her skin shimmers lightly thanks to a cream and she wears the real diamond studs her grandmother gave both her and Hermione the year before – her dress is off shoulder while Hermione’s has straps – when she leaves her room and walks slowly down the common room to flaunt her look everybody’s eyes are on her – she smiles graciously and then makes her way to the great hall where she agreed to meet Jacques Lapin – her entrance is watched from the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons delegation and Jacques leads her into the hall with a grin on his face and compliments on his lips – Ophelia watches her sister entrance with a warm smile and an arrogant look into Malfoy’s direction – who looks absolutely stunned –Ophelia has a wonderful evening, she dances with Jacques, Blaise, Theodore as well as with some of the Durmstrang delegation – is fawned over by Jacques – she even dances with Harry who grins at her – she introduces Jacques to Viktor Krum and they have a wonderful evening until Ron tries to ruin it – Ophelia intervenes with a few biting comments before Ron can destroy her sister’s evening and he leaves red faced – Ophelia knows about the crush Ron has on Hermione and she doesn’t think he is a suitable candidate for her sister, she is not above manipulating Ron into firm friendship zone – the evening ends with Jacques kissing her in front of the entrance to the Slytherin common room and wishing her a good night – he continues to meet up with her and they have a tentative relationship but Ophelia finds herself bored with the overly romantic French student very quickly and gently lets him down – after all he has very good connections – instead she starts a friendship with him which opens her the way to the more influential French wizarding society – she makes contacts and continues to groom those – Ron is back to ignoring Harry and Hermione – both shrug this is getting old very fast for them and so ignore him right back - Harry tells her about the second task after she prods him and tells him that everybody is cheating but him – she tells him to find a way to breath under water and discovers gilly weed – Harry orders it over an apothecary and then they discuss what else he would need – like a way to tell time, keep warn and how to reverse the effects of gilly weed before it lost its natural effect – she also tells him that something he is going to miss can easily be a person and that no matter what they would never let come harm to bystanders so he should continue no matter what – Ophelia is chosen as the person Harry would miss the most after Hermione is chosen for Krum – they tell her what is going to happen and she agrees to it – she wakes up in the water with Harry dragging her to the jetty around her people were roaring –they pull her up and Harry was the first one who arrived back – Ophelia is still slightly groggy and so Harry hits her with a warming charm and helps her get to the tent – there they wait for the other contestants – Krum comes up with Hermione and she is brought to her sister – Krum talks to her about visiting Bulgaria and Ophelia nudges her – Hermione who is still slightly distracted only nods with a smile – Ophelia sees a bug in Hermione’s hair and removes it – when she wants to flick it away she gets a magical sting – curious she looks closer at the frantic moving animal – she has never seen such a bug that was also magical and so puts it into a unbreakable phial – she always carries a few – she puts some small holes into the stopper before she puts it into her bag – she would study it later –happy about Harry being in the lead she makes her way into the castle and walks into the Slytherin common room – Pansy tries to tease her about Potter – Ophelia just raises her eyebrow and asks her if she is on drugs because while Potter was entertaining most of the time and she helped him for her sister sake she definitely would never consider a relationship – he was too goody-two-shoes and boring for her – Daphne and Tracy grin at her while Pansy just huffs and leaves – some days later the bets about who is going to win the tournament start – Ophelia bets on Potter – and Malfoy (betting on Diggory) tries to tease her – she tells him that he is deluding himself that Potter is already magically a lot stronger than Diggory and he is three years younger than him – she tells him that it will be either Potter or Krum – that Delacour while a fairly powerful witch had no chance with being in fourth place, murmurs around the common room agree with her – Malfoy makes a bet with her about an rare book –Ron apologizes again to Hermione and Harry who let it go but aren’t as close to Ron anymore - Ophelia continues her studies and also meets up with Harry and Hermione to prepare for the last task – she tells Harry that chivalry is nice outside a task but that she was sure that they would be pitted against each other in the last and that while Harry was inherently a nice wizard should not share his glory – they forced him into this tournament, well than he would win it and show everyone that something like this wouldn’t be able to bring him down – Harry sighs but agrees to her reasoning – then she also tells him that she has a bet going on with Malfoy about a book and the right for him to call her a mudblood in the Slytherin common room and that he better win – Harry’s eyes widen and he nods – Harry enters as the first one – makes his way as fast as possible through the maze – encounters the acromalutas at the end –banishes one accidently against the cup which vanishes – Harry is confused and so just lets golden sparks out of his wand – the wizards outside have seen Harry arriving at the middle of the maze but the cup vanish – they are just as confused – Prof. Flitwick and Dumbledore make their way into the middle and get Harry out – Moody is antsy but can’t get to Harry because everybody is congratulating him – Ophelia grins at Malfoy who is looking sour – happy she congratulates Harry – there is a big celebration in the Gryffindor common room and Ophelia is as only Slytherin invited – they have Butterbeer and pastries from the kitchens – Moody vanishes in that night and the corpse of him is found days later by a ministry official – the body is desecrated and mutilated – there is a lot of outrage over this – Durmstrang and Beauxbatons leave a week later – Ophelia has made a lot of acquaintances in both schools – she is of the opinion that it was a fruitful year – Hermione than informs her about Harry’s dream of Voldemort’s rebirth with Moody’s blood – the Gryffindor describes the ritual to Ophelia and she goes pale – she tells them that she has researched restoration rituals for Sirius to get his body back and had found this extreme dark one in the restricted library for which she had a permit from Flitwick – they are sure that Voldemort is back – Ophelia asked if they had told anyone – harry tells her only Dumbledore – she says that is good because it wouldn’t help anybody if he said anything – people wouldn’t believe him because they would want to continue to delude themselves, including the minister, Dumbledore probably had better contacts and would look into this – so she tells them to keep quiet and only inform Sirius about it – in Slytherin nothing changes and it seemed as if nobody had a clue what happened – Ophelia and Hermione take their tests while Harry is exempt for the exams, Hermione and Ophelia trade the first place in every subject - Harry gives the Weasley twins the Triwizard money and becomes a silent partner – Ophelia is interested in their dealings and also wants to invest into them – she still has the money from her summer job as well as her allowance that she doesn’t really use during school – when she goes out with boys they are paying for everything -they leave the school and return to their homes –_

_after the first week they are contacted by Dumbledore about joining Sirius at the head quarters of the resistance group against Voldemort – both Hermione and Ophelia agree – there they are told to not inform Harry about anything – Ophelia thinks it’s a stupid idea and sneaks out a few times to call Harry who is unbelievable glad about information and tells her about his nightmares – she gives him some mediation exercises and tells him to write down anything that he can remember of the nightmares – she then has Harry give her Petunia – Ophelia threatens to destroy the reputation of her family should she continue to abuse Harry and have him do all the chores – she tells her clearly that she will have talks with their neighbors and straighten up all the lies she has told about Harry for years on end, as well as inform Vernon’s superiors that he was a child abuser – she even tells Petunia the company her husband works for – she also tells her to get her pig of a son under control and that it is a wonder that he hadn’t exploded yet but would probably suffer from diabetes early in life thanks to the over feeding in his youth – Ophelia systematically tears down Petunia’s world before she hangs up – Ophelia than starts to collect information and newspapers to keep Harry updated – she also tells him to do sit ups and pushups in his room to keep in shape and get rid of some of the frustration – the children at Grimmauld’s place are told to clean up the rooms – Ophelia asks Sirius if the wards are also against ministry detection when he agrees she starts to use her wand and also has Winky take over most of the cleaning, when Kreacher tries to attack Winky Ophelia banishes him against the wall and tells him that should he try to ever attack Winky again she will make him regret it for the rest of his life – Sirius saw this and agrees that she can punish Kreacher however she sees fit should he ever attack her or Winky again– Ophelia use magic - not in front of the adults but she still does it, even to change the decorations - they get rid of the dark animals and pixies – Ophelia catches them and asks Sirius if he is okay with her selling them to an apothecary – he is okay with that – Hermione at first is reluctant but when everyone of the teenagers start to use their wands she does too – they clean up the rooms as quickly as possible and then use one room as practice room for their spells and curses and transfiguration – Sirius becomes moody because of the house – Ophelia uses her knowledge of the beach room Tracy told her about during the year and works the spells so long until she can get them right and changes another room into a beach with artificial sun and water – for that she had magically increased the room and then made a swimming pool with steps and a wave spell in the middle so that the water made some noises – after that she transfigured old furniture into sunbeds and deck chairs and placed the artificial sun on the ceiling – the spell recreated everything the sun did and they would need to keep up their sunscreen spells during their time in this room – she shows it to Sirius, and then the other kids who enthusiastically use it – Sirius mood gets better and he also starts to get a tan – he has filled out since his break out and thanks to her potions he is close to his old form – he still takes them daily throughout the year he also took teeth repair potions as well as cures for his hair and magical rejuvenation potions that were expensive but restored his skin somewhat – he also started to work out on Ophelia’s advice – he still drunk though and had nightmares – she told him to write the nightmares into a diary and try to limit his alcohol consume – after she finds him sitting in front of the fire with a firewhiskey bottle in hand she accioed it out of his grip and handed him an sobering potion – as a Slytherin you always had to be prepared even if it only was to talk a upper class man in showing you something useful. – Ophelia spends most of her time in the library and reads about old traditions and even dark rituals – its interesting but she doesn’t really feel compelled to do those – she redecorates the lower floors and makes Sirius do the spells to ward of the suspicion of Molly – you didn’t have to use magic right in front of her – she persuades Sirius to cast anti theft spells after she counts the silver once again and is sure that something is missing –Ophelia is introduced to Bill and Charlie and they talk about Ancient Runes and Arithmetic - two days after Harry’s birthday the adults decide to get harry to the headquarters – Ophelia who thinks it’s really mean to keep him locked up at the Dursleys although the blood wards should already be charged makes her way out of the house in the earliest of hours and takes the Knight Bus to Surrey, Magnolia road to be exactly before she knocks on the Dursleys front door and tells Harry to pack his stuff that they were going to London – she had Sirius take the slip of paper Dumbledore left the order members to help Harry through the wards and replace it – Sirius approves of her plan – the two young magic users then take the muggle bus (15 min) to the train station Clandon before taking an early train to London (1h12min)– there they take a taxi (12 min) and Ophelia pays with fake muggle money that she had Sirius copy from her the bills her parents gave her to spend – Harry read the slip of paper before they left for the bus and they burned it with help of a zippo – they arrive shortly before 9 am after Ophelia left the house at half past six –everybody is surprised about Harry’s arrival and Ophelia just shrugs and tells them that she didn’t want to leave Harry a day longer than he had to be under the blood wards and so she got him, without any super secret group who would have probably have stood out like a sore thumb - Fred and George apparate through the house and greet Harry - Dumbledore arrives and asks why Harry is already here – they point at Ophelia and she shrugs and tells him that friends didn’t leave each other with horrible relatives if they could help it –Dumbledore then tells Harry that he told his friends to keep quiet and not to write to him – Harry shrugs and tells him that he already knew – Dumbledore asks why_

“I informed him a few weeks ago,” Ophelia said somewhat bored.

“And why is that Ms. Granger that you went specifically against my order?”

“Order Prof. Dumbledore? More like a request, and technically I didn’t exactly go against your so called order.”

“And why have you then informed Mr. Potter about the going ons?”

“Prof. Dumbledore as much as I respect you in your capacity as headmaster and wizard, I wouldn’t have followed this request had you been Merlin himself. First of all you are our headmaster, as much as you have a right to dictate things concerning our stay in Hogwarts, during the summer holidays you have no such right, not even over Harry Potter especially not concerning with who he converses no matter how much you feel prudent to interfere with his business. Secondly, Hermione and I were raised by parents who hold logic and common sense over everything else, my dear sister is unfortunately blinded by her desperate need to obey authority figures wherever she goes, I still haven’t been able to completely break her from that. Following someone blindly is a stupid habit that can get you killed, be it intentionally or not. And thirdly may I remind you that you are human and therefore make mistakes? Giving out orders without explaining them is a sign of a bad leader, just so you know. And now why I went against your request, apparently you have really no idea about Harry’s character because otherwise you would have known that keeping him isolated would be the worst thing possible in this situation. Harry tends to be an irrational Gryffindor when he gets desperate and believe me, staying at the Dursleys without any contact to the wizarding world would make anyone desperate. Hermione you know that, you should have trusted your common sense and instinct not somebody who is as far removed from Harry as the headmaster. So I phoned the Dursley residence and told him what was going on. After all you only asked from us was not to write him probably because of a possible interference with letters, so I didn’t specifically go against your order. Additionally it gave him a chance to talk to someone that didn’t abuse him while at the same time alleviated his stress levels about the Voldemort situation.”

Some of the order members flinched at the name.

“Oh please do grow up, as long as Voldemort doesn’t put a Taboo curse on his name there is really nothing to fear of it,” Ophelia said annoyed to the crowd around them, “Anyway where was I… oh yeah, I called him as often as I could sneak out, which was to be honest very easy. This had the effect of calming him down, furthermore I had a… talk with Mrs. Dursley who then allowed him access to his school supplies and eased up about the frankly ridiculous amount of chores. This gave him something to do with his pent up frustration after being cooped up in that house with nothing to do… oh yes and I made SURE that he kept in the house and under the blood wards. Did you know that Harry liked to go to the park two streets down? No? Yes well, now you do, don’t worry I EXPLAINED the reason why staying on the property and inside the blood wards was vital for his continuing health... may I remind you that Harry is a teenager? Even Hermione and I need something to do other then reading to not go completely nuts and Harry is a boy, they are easily taken over by their hormones and start doing stupid things. Giving instructions without explaining them is a bad idea, you can ask any teacher in Hogwarts about this, so why did you think this would in any way work?”

There was a stunned silence until you could hear a snort from Sirius before he grinned at Ophelia.

“I’m sorry Albus but I have to agree with Ophelia on this, keeping Harry isolated was really not thought out. Harry is a lot more mature than other boys but without a specific reason why he won’t just jump when you tell him to,” The Black said.

“I fear I too have to agree with Ms. Granger on her reasoning, her actions were very well thought out and based on knowing Mr. Potter better than anyone of the adults in this house. Though I have to ask, did you really not tell Mr. Potter how far the blood wards go and how they work?” Prof. McGonagall said reluctantly and then incredulous, “Furthermore what do you mean about abuse Ms. Granger? Surely the muggles are not that bad?”

As an answer Ophelia snorted and raised an eyebrow sarcastically, “Prof. McGonagall, every year I counter the starvation Harry goes through with anti malnutrition potions which he has to take well into the second month. Additionally Harry shows other signs of abuse but I won’t go into them in front of everybody here, this is frankly none of your business.”

“Malnutrition?” Molly Weasley asked outraged, the other Order members around them also murmured angry and dissatisfied.

“Albus you have to do something about this, this can’t go on, blood wards or not!” Prof. McGonagall said angry.

“Now Minerva,” The headmaster tried to calm his colleague down.

“No, I told you they were muggles of the worst sort and you still didn’t listen! Own up to your mistakes!” the transfiguration professor now used the words Ophelia had used before.

Dumbledore sighed gravely but said nothing.

Watching this Harry only rolled his eyes and tugged on Ophelia’s arm, “He won’t change his mind, I told him about them after my first year. Didn’t you say you wanted to show me something Ophelia?”

“Oh right. Hermione, Ginny, Ronald are you coming?” the elder of the Granger twins asked quickly, she really had no need to see the so called adults squabble over who was to blame about what.

The rest of the teenagers nodded their heads and they made their way upstairs dragging Harry’s suitcase with them.

_Ophelia shows him the sun room and Harry spends the rest of the holidays working out and getting a tan while they try to get more information about the so called order – when Remus tells them that they didn’t know what dangers are involved in this Ophelia snorts and says,_

“Somebody put some thought into the rule to only accept people over the age limit but you are a bit hypocritical if you think they have no idea what they are signing up for. In their first year when they were eleven and twelve respectively they made their way through so called protections of the philosopher stone, although they were probably only some tasks to lure in somebody who was tempted by immortality… still Harry faced Quirrel and with him Voldemort and killed him and made Voldemort’s spirit leave, he was eleven then. Second year, the whole fiasco with the Chamber of Secrets, I mean who of your so called Order members can say that they defeated a basilisk that was hundreds of years old and fifty feet long, with only a sword and the help of a phoenix. Then there was the third year and yours truly a werewolf on the lose that forgot to drink his wolfsbane. Oh and last year, Triwizard tournament ring any bells? A dragon, mermaids, and a slightly deadly maze… nope Harry really has absolutely NO idea what is coming at him,” with that Ophelia smiled sarcastically before she left the room with a stunned Remus Lupin sitting between teenagers.

_Ophelia doesn’t agree with Molly and keeps telling her why she thinks keeping information will get them all killed – the Weasley matriarch reluctantly agrees – and they are told some things – Sirius tells them about the Blacks and their dark past – the Hogwarts letters come and Hermione, Ophelia and Harry are made prefects – McGonagall tells Harry later in an eye to eye talk that Dumbledore didn’t want to burden Harry anymore but she thought that he more than deserved this and she had the right to decide after all – Harry thanks the professor – Ophelia catches the boggart and sells him to a barely legal apothecary in Knockturn Alley – she doesn’t really care that they are grey affiliated – she splits the money three quarters to one and puts it into hers and Hermione’s vaults – she does it with most of the money she makes out of the creatures she found in the Black house – Mundungus is caught trying to steal from Sirius – everyone is very upset and he is told to only come to meetings and leave straight after them by McGonagall, Dumbledore is not there as most of the times – he keeps his distance from Harry but that doesn’t bother him that much, he enjoys his holidays for the first time – Ophelia continues to urge him to do the mental exercises – she has found a book on Legilimency and Occlumency in the Black library and Sirius allows her to take it with her to Hogwarts with the promise to help Harry with it –_

_They meet Luna Lovegood on the train – Harry, Hermione, leave for the Prefect meeting – Ophelia meets with her friends, Draco is the other prefect – after the meeting Ophelia looks into the Gryffindor train compartment before returning to Tracey and Daphne – at Hogwarts Prof. Grubbly-Plank returned instead of Hagrid – Harry doesn’t see the Thestrals because Cedric didn’t die – Cedric is the head boy – Winky helps again in the Hogwarts kitchen – she is very happy about her bond - Dolores Umbridge is teacher for DADA – Dumbledore tried to warn the minister who didn’t take it well and now tries to control Hogwarts – Umbridge’s class is a joke – Ophelia can thankfully stop Harry and Hermione from saying anything and they elbow Ron to not say anything – Ophelia tells them to keep their heads down until they understood what she wanted to do – if she kept teaching only the theoretical parts they would have to learn on their own but without giving away what they did – Umbridge turns out to be a dreadful and useless teacher and they decide to teach themselves how to use this spells – Ophelia meets up regularly with Harry and Hermione to learn Occlumency – Ron tried in the beginning but didn’t have the patience for it- it helps in Umbridge lessons to keep their mouth shut – in Slytherin there too is a lot of discontent about Umbridge but nobody tries to say anything – Ophelia take the first years aside and shows them how to use the spells and gives them a serve warning to not reveal their proficiency – than grabs the second years an does the same- within two weeks she has the fourth year and under up to par and tells them to continue to practice inside of Slytherin – she tells this to Hermione and Harry and the two think it is a brilliant idea – they get the other prefects in on it and start to teach their houses how to use the spells – the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs follow after Ophelia had a discreet talk to both head boy (Puff) and girl (Claw) – Umbridge is content about how the students behave although she keeps a sharp eye on Harry Potter who is apparently not a Dumbledore fan – he is just like any other student – she tells this to Fudge and continue to teach and control the teachers – she wants to get rid of Binn’s and Trelawney but also Hagrid – Ophelia agrees with her on the first two but doesn’t think that Hagrid was that bad – as Slytherin she redirects Umbridge’s attention on finding appropriate replacements of Binn’s and Trelawney first – Harry noticed the article about Sturgis Podmore a Order member and that they were guarding something – is confused but doesn’t do more than mention it – Harry uses Winky to write to Sirius about Order stuff – and writes official letters with Hedwig, like ordering sweets or whatever – Percy tries to warn Ron of Dumbledore and that he is crazy – they hear that Hagrid was separated from Madame Maxime – Ophelia also is now more and more often in the Gryffindor common room – she is the only snake that is allowed – she gives the students pep talks and encourages them to keep their mouths shut around Umbridge and just continue to do was she says – Harry has his first bad dream about Voldemort in a long time – he writes it up and then talks to Hermione and Ophelia about it – Hermione urges him to tell this to Dumbledore but Ophelia says no – she reasons that until they have a better idea what it is they shouldn’t bother Dumbledore who has already enough to do with the Ministry and the Order – also Ophelia doesn’t trust him to not make more mistakes concerning Harry – Hermione and she start to research dreams and magical connections – but none of the books contain information about dreams out of the view of the person they dream about – Ophelia digs deeper and come through another book to souls – the more she reads about souls the more worried she becomes – she tells Hermione and Harry about her discovery of the book about souls and tells them that she fears that Harry has a soul connection through which he can slip into Voldemort’s consciousness – Harry tells the girls how Dumbledore always said that the scar was not a normal scar but a magical one that connected him to Voldemort – Ophelia doesn’t like this, she really, really don’t – she and Hermione use her time turner to get additional hours of reading time in and search the library as well as the forbidden section with Ophelia’s permission, Hermione too gets permission from Professor Vector for her Arithmetic/ Runes project – they don’t find enough and so Ophelia sends Winky to the Black library to bring her book after book – Sirius gives permission after she asks in a roundabout way, she likes him but doesn’t completely trust him to not tell Dumbledore – Sirius has put a property of the Blacks on the coast of Spain under heavy wards and Dumbledore put a Fidelius under the property, and put up a floo connection – he is using the time before Christmas to get some tan in as well as uses make up spells to change most of his face and get laid just as Ophelia told him – he is enjoying his life and can convince Remus to join him for a few days – Ophelia, Hermione and Harry continue to research – they have found the Room of Requirement with Dobby’s and Winky’s help – there they are reading the books Winky brings them – additionally they research everything they know about Tom Marvolo Riddle- they know that he was a head boy, Slytherin, spoke parsel tongue, opened the chamber of secrets, was malicious and a genius and made the diary that possessed Ginny -_

“Harry, Hermione didn’t you say that Riddle feared death?” Ophelia asked slowly while she shuddered and continued to read.

“Yes why?”

“And what do you do to NOT die?”

“Find a away to stay alive… become immortal…?” Hermione asked unsure.

“Uhuh and I just found a very nasty way to prevent death and use soul magic.”

“What?” Harry asked now concerned.

“Okay listen up, Horcruxes. During the creation of a Horcrux you splinter of a part of your soul and put it into an object. As long as the object continues to exist, the soul is tethered to this plane of existence and you continue to life.”

“Oh fuck,” Harry said what everybody was thinking.

“So if a soul piece continues to hold Voldemort here and it’s in Harry… how the hell do we get it out?” Hermione asked worriedly.

Ophelia closed the book and looked determinedly at the other two people in the room, “We will find a way.”

Hermione nodded with renewed hope, “Let’s get to work.”

_They search for way to remove a Horcrux but there has never been a documented way how to – only how to destroy them –Avada Kedavra, Basilisk venom and a Goblin made enchanted weapon – it is shortly before the winter holidays when Harry has the vision about the snake and Mr. Weasley – he warns Ron and McGonagall who they wake up out of sleep and tell her about the vision – she contacts Order members and they find Mr. Weasley in time – Ophelia and Hermione know that this means that Voldemort has another Horcrux in his snake Nagini – so they know that he has at least two –Hermione then asks about the diary and they conclude there were three –they continue to research Horcruxes and Ophelia sees that they have all the same energy and thinks about scrying for them and Voldemort – she learned about this in the lessons of Trelawney and had found a book about how to do it with some results –she scries for them on a weekend before the Christmas holidays and it makes her weak and tired but they now know that there are eight pieces with Voldemort himself that they had to destroy– Hermione and her write a letter that they didn’t want to go skiing and that anybody who wanted to take the exams seriously stayed at Hogwarts – they go Grimmaulds Place – in the week upcoming to Christmas Ophelia shows Hermione and Harry a cleansing ritual and a switching ritual and talks about combining the two into one – Harry and Hermione are a bit unsure but agree – Ophelia says that Winter Solstice would be the best time which is on the 21 st of December 23:47 – they prepare the ritual, they thankfully have most of the ingredients but Ophelia has to send Winky to buy the last few ones – they decide to put the Horcrux in small pocket calendar of the last year – prepare the ritual Harry and Hermione blush because Harry has to be naked and sit in the middle of the painted ritual circle out of oil of Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender which was also painted in protection Runes all over his body – the empty calendar was in a bowl in front of Harry and his scar was outlined with the oil – Ophelia writes the containing Rune with Celandine also called the devil’s milk to attract the dark souls piece – before the ritual begins Ophelia burns Blue Berries, Coconut, Honeysuckle against unwanted influences, for protection and luck in a bowl beside her – she and Hermione than start to gather magic to their hands and pour it through the specific hand connection Runes into the circle and the Harry – he gasps and the Runes begin to glow – until they shine in a bright light and the Harry starts to wiggle and wind himself while something black comes out of his scar with a flick of her wand Ophelia has moved the calendar in front of his forehead and the black thing latches on within moments – after everything had left Harry he sacks together into the rune circle – the Ritual runs its course and stops to glow – Ophelia in the mean time levitates the Horcrux into a especially prepared box and shuts it before she turned back to Harry and Hermione – Hermione vanished the traces of the cleansing ritual and gives Harry first a towel and the a hug – Harry returns the hug and in a moment of complete relief and happiness he kisses Hermione on the lips – she gasps and her eyes go wide before they close again and she enjoys the feeling –Ophelia is happy about this match – she can see Hermione getting old with Harry and NOT fight over every little bit – they are both embarrassed but also send each other shy glances before Ophelia clears her throat and looks amused from one to the other – Hermione squeaks before she looks down at Harry’s and her entangled hand and refuses to meet Ophelia’s eyes – Ophelia tells them that it was about time that they finally noticed each other and tells them that she is more than happy about this – they clean up and then go to bed – Harry feels a lot better during the next day he is really chipper and it’s like a heavy weight fell off of him – they relax until Christmas and then start to research again – Ron is still with his family and they understand and Ophelia is also secretly glad about this – Hermione and Harry become closer and start to develop a healthy relationship – Ophelia scries again for the objects even though they are in London it shows Hogwarts as a place where one is – they decide to search for it the moment they were back – they keep the pendulum and the Horcrux in another bigger box with several locking and protection spells – Ophelia brings up getting Basilisk venom from the teeth in the chamber – Harry agrees – Ophelia uses another smaller pendulum to lead her to the closest Horcrux and it leads her to the Slytherin locket in Regulus room – she takes it and shows it to Hermione and Harry – they decide to destroy it alongside the other Horcrux and put it into the box – Ophelia has Winky run a few errands for her like stocking up on potion supplies – Ron returns to them but they are now occupied with Harry’ sudden additional power – they practice with him to get it under control and both Hermione and Ophelia think about doing a cleansing ritual during one of the equinoxes or the Summer Solstice – Sirius gives Harry a mirror to contact him even more easily then through Winky - they return to Hogwarts and Hermione uses a quick cosmetic charm to keep the slowly healing scar looking like always – back at Hogwarts Ophelia is confronted with a lot of grim and tired looking Slytherins – they also look scared, others delighted, especially Draco looks torn between those two feelings – Ophelia has a bad feeling about this, they would have to destroy Voldemort and his Horcruxes as fast as possible – she tells Harry and Hermione about the change of the climate in Slytherin – they scry for the next Horcrux and it leads them to the Room of Requirement only they don’t see it –until Hermione asks – _

_why did Voldemort put it here_

_to hide it,… so we need a place to hide things_

_in that moment the room changes again and its filled with clutter and the pendulum starts to lead them to a pile of things and to a diadem – Ophelia gasps and starts to curse –both Hermione and Harry look irritated – she tells them that that is Ravenclaws diadem – Hermione agrees that they should move the Horcrux to another object during the spring equinox which was on the 20 th of March in the late afternoon – _

_Harry snorts and says Ravenclaws diadem, Slytherin’s locket, do you see a pattern? –_

_so something from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor? Hermione asked_

_And the snake, Ophelia threw in_

_Okay so eight parts, Voldemort, his snake, my scar, the diary, Slytherin’s locket, Ravenclaw’s diadem two things left Harry said before he trailed off._

_Let’s wait with the conclusion until we have a better picture of the things – I read somewhere that you could scry something and the see it somehow – it’s a water scrying form of that I’m sure but I have no idea where I read it and what I need for it –Ophelia_

_Harry makes his way to the girls toilet to enter the Chamber of secrets – without any problems –he than gets rigid – didn’t Dumbledore say that he got that gift from Voldemort, why did it then still exist? Trying to forget what he thought about he leads the girls down and into the chamber were the bones of the giant snake were he breaks of some teeth and puts them into an extra box – in the mean time both Hermione and Ophelia explore – Hermione finds a door that leads to a study and a ton of old books – Ophelia climbs through the mouth of Slytherin but only finds an empty chamber shrugs and returns to the other two – they see all the books and Ophelia thinks that they could be valuable – so they shrink them and after some protection spells against usage they all land in Hermione’s book bag to be carried upstairs – Ophelia returns to Slytherin while Hermione and Harry do some things with Ron – Ophelia holds court – her Slytherin halfbloods are scared and unhappy – she tries to reassure them and starts up lessons again – Ophelia starts to snare again the younger years to bind them to her with favors – during their time turner time Ophelia, Hermione and Harry research the scrying spell and make out the Horcruxes – beside the already found objects they see a ring and a cup – the cup is in a vault, a Gringotts vault to be exact while the ring was in an old hovel – in a place called little Hangleton – they decide to get it during their summer holidays – in the mean time they concentrate about how they would get the cup out of the Gringotts vault without starting a new goblin war – a few weeks later all three of them are sitting in the library doing homework when Hermione reviews for the upcoming OWL exams and reads through the switching spell and says in jest to Ophelia, what about the switching spell? Do you think that would do it? – Ophelia is with one word awake and she reads through the spell before she says – the spell maybe not but a ritual? Hermione’s eyes widened – since the cleaning ritual she has researched dozens of different rituals that she would like to try as well as the common things between the rituals – a ritual especially with more than one participant were a lot stronger than just a spell, it was one of the oldest magics around and had been used during the witch hunts to envoke protective spells over whole villages and streets – like Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley – today nearly nobody did them anymore, which was kind of stupid as far as Hermione thought – rituals could also easily made up – you just had to concentrate on one goal and then get ingredients that would support the endeavor –Harry nodded thoughtfully before saying, let’s try it on the ring first – Little Hangelton is closer and there are also no goblin wards between it and us – nodding they prepare the ritual for the following weekend – they are all clothed because nobody had runes painted on them as well as magical enhancing properties worked into the ritual circle – they envoke the magic and then concentrate about switching the Horcrux ring with the transfigured one – and when the ritual reaches its peak the objects switch – they can’t believe their luck – Ophelia is like in a trance and sees only the ring and can’t stop reaching for it – Hermione interrupts in the last second when she sees how her eyes are glazed over – Ophelia wakes up and casts a curse detection charm and then transfigures a fly into a rabbit before moving it against the ring the transfigured rabbit turns black and starts to shrivel up –before it dies – after that Ophelia casts another curse detection charm to find the ring without curse – she wants to put it into the box with the other Horcruxes when its exchanged once more for the transfigured ring –they look at each other before they grin – they could destroy the artifact and then it would return where it had been – whoever had been in charge of taking care of the object would be in deep trouble – they cast the ritual on the next day and then pierce it with a Basilisk fang – a black cloud comes out but because of the protection herbs around them it just vanishes into thin air instead of attacking them – the same happens with the cup – although the cup really takes it out of them and they barely see how the spirit leaves the cracked object before it disappears again – then Harry asks a curious question – can you switch people?_

_No but you can switch animals_

_The three grinned at each other but left the planning for the march weekend and the spring equinox – they would do the switching ritual for the Horcrux of the diadem and locket in the following weeks instead of the spring equinox – after they had free the objects of the soul pieces they destroyed one after another and used after each one cleansing rituals – all three started to feel their connection with the magic and how it grew with every ritual – even during lessons it became apparent that they had become stronger – all three of them also practices ritually their Occlumency and kept their heads down in potion class –_

_While they researched how to use a switching spell on a snake Horcrux Harry had a curious idea, what if we wait until Voldemort has the snake and put it full of explosives and potions_

_You mean like a bomb Ophelia asked while she slowly started to grin_

_That would take care of both of our problems_

_Hhm are you sure this is going to work? Hermione asked_

_And even if not, at least we tried_

_Fair enough Hermione nodded_

_They prepared and the scryed for the snake during the spring equinox day, they could practically feel the energy increase throughout the whole day – they had put together a snake dummy filled with draught of living death compressed into easy breakable vials, basilisk teeth parts mixed in a water solution that drew out the poison – and in the middle of the whole thing was a special explosive bomb curtsey of the Weasley twins – Harry and Ophelia had called in favors and commissioned this absolutely deadly master piece – the twins had been rather serious when handing it over it explodes when it hits the floor a bit harder– Ophelia and Harry promised that it would be used to end the second war before it could begin – they had a second bomb that would be fixed onto the corps the moment the snake was dead_

_They scry for the snake – find Voldemort in a meeting with death eaters – they do the ritual – the snake appears – Hermione stuns it – Harry stabs and Ophelia afixes the second bomb on the dead corpse- before throwing up a shield barrier around the three- the switching charm is reversed and they receive a rather tattered snake dummy – Hermione does the bubble head charms for all three while Harry vanished without a incarnation the rests of the snake dummy – the three look at each other before they end the ritual clean themselves up and make their way back to their respective dorms – now it was time to wait for the results – Ophelia take the time to play some chess with Blaise before making her way through the room to check on her ducklings – the younger Slytherin students that she had taken under her wing – with a quick careful measured smile she checked homework and transfiguration attempts for a while before she left the common room to do her rounds, Malfoy sweeping in and taking the other corridor – she met up with Hermione and Harry and then made her way back into the Slytherin room – and then she went to bed – the following morning she made her way to the Room of Requirement and started to accio jewelry to her – she put it into her bag before returning to the Great Hall and eating breakfast – she eyed her sister and Harry from across the Hall and saw that they sat closer than normal, did they finally want to make it official? A raised eye brow received a smirk from Harry while he causally put his arm around Hermione – Ophelia just had to snort before shaking her head with a smirk, Potter oh well he wouldn’t be a horrible brother in law –_

“Am I seeing right?” Tracy asked from her other side.

“Yes, it does seem as if I will get Potter as an in-law,” Ophelia acknowledged seemingly wistfully, “And I thought I could somehow still change fate and set my dear little sister up with Malfoy.”

Blaise beside her inhaled his coffee through the wrong pipe, after a coughing attack he looked at her still carefully arranged sad face before he said with a disbelieving voice, “You know, the sad thing is you probably really would do it just to prove you can.”

The grin that Ophelia sent him at that second was so deviously fast gone that the Zabini nearly thought he had seen things.

“It’s going to make you a target,” Daphne said seriously from her other side, the blonde witch looked seriously concerned, “The times are getting darker once more. Potter isn’t thinking this through, Ophelia you will have to be careful.”

The elder Granger twin couldn’t help but reassure her friend, “You are underestimating him Daphne, he would have never have done such a public show of affection if he wasn’t absolutely sure that it wouldn’t affect her or me negatively.”

Ophelia’s voice had been carefully controlled so that only the three around her had been able to understand her. Tracy’s eyes across from her widened while Blaise and Daphne stiffened on both her sides.

“A piece of advice, whatever you do try to keep out of the Deatheater mess, it’s not worth Hippogriff dung anymore since yesterday evening.” Ophelia said very very quietly before she continued to eat breakfast.

Around her her friends did too, they had too much control over their masks to let anything slip. When the four stood up to leave for classes all three acknowledged through tiny movements their understanding.

“You won’t tell us anything,” Blaise stated more than he asked.

“… it’s better this way, we aren’t sure who we all got,” Ophelia said after some thinking.

The brunette witch then abruptly changed the topic to the transfiguration essay they had to be handed in today, after another moment both Tracy and Blaise responded while Daphne simply listened.

_It’s not something that happens from one day to the other – its more gradual and then a lot of missing people ads shine up where people are missing, weeks and months later death announcements of these people find their way into the papers – but what really indicates the end of Voldemort and his death eaters is the fact that Snape has his sleeves moved up during one potion lesson and his arm didn’t show the Dark Mark – Harry tells Fred and George to stay in school for their NEWTS to pick up additional qualifications and ideas before starting the joke shop – Ophelia invests also more money into their business although she only gives to the WWW enterprise fifty galleons her ideas and potion knowledge is what truly interests Fred & George – during the weeks after Voldemort’s death Ophelia scryed for Pettigrew with a bit of rat hair that had been left over in Ron’s trunk and which Harry picked up when the Weasley had discarded it – it took Ophelia five tries but then she found the man – Harry uses his mirror to inform Sirius that they had found him per scrying spell and gave him the coordinates – Sirius catches Peter and then reverses his form into human – and wraps him up like a present, put him into a glass box and writes a letter at the department of magical law enforcement_

Dear DMLE,  
the next time you sentence somebody to a lifelong Azkaban sentence please do give him a trial and check if he is innocent or not.

Yours truly,

Sirius Black

_The package arrives in the middle of a press conference and a reporter reads it out loud while others recognize Peter Pettigrew – they scream for blood when they finally realize what this means – Fudge has to agree to a public questioning of Pettigrew or he is doomed – they ask questions like were you a Deatheater, who were you loyal too, did you betray the Potters etc. – Sirius is acknowledged to be innocent and people cry for the blood of those that put other people without a trial into Azkaban – there is a big tohubahow – the Ministry gives Black a hefty compensation – Sirius appears in the ministry and walks calmly through it and gets up to the DMLE until somebody recognizes him – he gets his pardon as well as the compensation check off of Fudge and then gives him a no confidence vote while he explains why the minister could have made this right two years ago but was too stubborn to acknowledge mistake – he also gets the rights to Harry and the leaves the ministry in chaos – Ophelia snorts while she reads the article the next day and looks at Harry who too is laughing while Hermione just shakes her head in resignation –the year ends with Umbridge being thrown out alongside the Minister, Ophelia, Harry and Hermione acing each of the OWL exams, Ron did okay too – he was a bit miffed about the fact that Harry and Hermione were together but in the end didn’t care, he and Lavender had gotten together in the last few months – the twins spend some time with their parents before meeting up with Harry who now lives with Sirius at Grimmauld’s place – there are still some meetings going on but they get fewer and fewer when nothing happens – Harry left his scar to fade away – around summer solstice they do another cleansings ritual before Ophelia visits some French friends and then travels to Bulgaria via portkey where she meets up with some old acquaintances – she takes the advantage and buys books and learns Bulgarish – before she meets up with her friends in August – she spends a very relaxing week at the Zabini’s summer residence in Italy where she is introduced to a wide diversity of italien wizards and witches – Ophelia collects acquaintances as other cards – she builds a network of people she knew and started to redirect the people that just graduated in direction of people she met – that kept her in the memory and made sure that people were indebted to her – back at Grimmauld’s place they get their OWL results and score with the exception of DADA the highest scores in their subject, the additional studying time really made a difference – Ophelia received twelve OWLs while Hermione ten, both had O’s in all subjects, Harry received nine OWLs with two EE’s in astronomy and history, surprisingly he had an O in both Divination and Potions, snape would be hopping mad – Ron received seven OWLS (four EE’s an O and two A’s)_

_They return to Hogwarts – Ophelia gives F &G her connection to international suppliers of various ingredients – the death eater kids are all confused a few of them lost family members – but everything stays normal and so they just continue without the DE in their backs – the predjudice against muggleborns is still strong but since Ophelia arrived at Hogwarts to was getting better – Ophelia and Hermione are honored alongside Harry for their outstanding scores – the sixth year goes by – Ophelia has started to transfer all of the lost jewelry and furniture she deems interesting and valuable into her vault – she continues her studies and watches over Harry and Hermione – harry wants to become a teacher after finishing his defense mastery – Hermione thinks about going into spell research – during the summer holidays Hermione introduces Harry to their parents – the twins take the time to spend time with their parents -7th year begins and it is Ophelia who becomes Head girl – Hermione is fine with that – Harry gets to be Head boy – Hermione is now having correspondences with two experts in the field of spell research and she also plans a mastery in transfiguration – McGonagall agrees to be her master – the last year goes by with no adventurers or catastrophes – Ophelia holds the final speech and sends their year into their new life – she makes her way one more time through the halls of the old castle, her things are packed and her friends are waiting – feeling bitter sweet Ophelia looks up the great Hall one more time before smiling slightly and falling the other students out of the castle, this was is – their life would begin now. Her smile becomes bigger and bigger before she starts to laugh softly – her friends look at her but she just shakes her head – with one last gaze to the castle she grabs Blaise hand whose eyes become wide and steps onto the train that would bring the back to London – _

“Were you going to tell me one day that you like me?” she asked the dark skinned boy curious.

Blaise glanced at her before smiling softly “Eventually.”

“Hhm,” She hummed before pressing a small kiss on his cheek “I’m tired of waiting.”

Blaise grin became bigger and he squeezed her hand before bending down and softly kissing her on the lips, behind them Tracy and Daphne just shook their heads while Hermione laughed into Harry’s shoulder.

Ophelia and Hermione smiled at each other while they boarded the train for the last time.


	10. NarutoxInu Yasha

Situation:

Sesshomaru, now Shiroheki is reborn as the biological son of Hatake Kakashi and a civilian of another canine clan. Orochimaru got his hands on his genetic material before he left Konoha. He remembers his life before. He (6) takes part in the death matches Orochimaru organizes between promising experiments and demands siblings (the all have Kakashi's blood). When he is 10 he wins Karin in another match. With 11 he meets Kakashi. (Shizuka 4, Hideaki 3, Yuuto, Shinobu, Fuyuharu 2, the three youngest are all from different mothers - the children with the exception of Shiroheki have all the signature silver hair).

Shiroheki= white ruler/ king/ prince; Shizuka=quiet smell, perfume; Hideaki= excellence, bright; Shinobu= endurance; Fuyuharu (winter, sun); Yuuto (distant, person)

**Scene 1**

"You are new." the white haired boy stated simply, his golden eyes shining impassively.

ANBU Hawk just grunted and kept watching the young teenager in front of him, he was tense his instincts were screaming at him that the boy was a predator and a very real threat to him.

"Ah." he simply stated as calmly as possible.

Hawk knew that predators could smell and practically feel weakness so he was careful to keep his breath and heartbeat tightly controlled. The longer he stared at the boy the stronger became the niggling feeling that the face shape and shoulders were somewhat familiar but he couldn't tell where he had seen them.

Shiro kept staring at the newest prisoner for some moments before he wandered over to the sheet on the side of the cage, the scientist had thankfully the stupid habit to write down basic information about the prisoner as well for which experiments they were scheduled for to not double cross each other and reverse any effects or kill the person prematurely.

"Hhm, Konoha ANBU. Interesting," Shiro simply stated while his eyes returned to the man in front of him.

"What are you?" the prisoner asked bluntly, his ANBU career had destroyed his tact and he really wanted to know why all of his baser instincts were screaming at him.

"An experiment, just like you will be." Shiro stated simply without any emotion, this was a fact and there was no way to talk it pretty.

The imprisoned shinobi was stunned before his eyes turned calculating but he didn't say anything. Their staring match was interrupted by a scientist that walked down the corridor.

"You don't seem as pathetic as most of the idiots that get caught here, try to last at least a week then we will talk again." Shiro simply stated before he left, he had his siblings to take care of.

XXXXXXXXX

A week later he returned to the corridor to see an exhausted but conscious shinobi lying on the small cot.

"So you survived." Shiro stated calmly while he tested the air.

Shiroheki could smell the blood and the stress from the body in front of him but the human was holding himself together admirably, not many survived the first week in the facility, especially not with that kind of injuries.

"So it seems." the man answered sarcastically while he watched how the boy once more checked the sheet beside his prison.

"Hhm, they are testing your body for a developing Kekkei Genkai and enhanced senses, you smell like canine, that's probably why you are here and not in the other facilities."

"There are others?" Hawk asked, trying to calculate how much information he could glean of the predator in front of him.

The boy simply raised an eyebrow and seemed to weigh if he should answer to his straight out question.

"Dozens," Shiro stated finally, "And you are in mine… Taichi." Shiro's cold voice called through the room without suffix or an ounce of respect.

"Shiroheki-sama?" the scientist that just entered the prisoner corridor asked fearfully.

He was one of the few that enjoyed experimenting that hadn't had an… unfortunate accident but said scientist was too much of a coward to move against anything Shiro said and this was the only reason why he hadn't been killed yet.

"This one is interesting, feed him, heal him up a bit and keep him alive." Shiro's voice broke no argument while he turned and walked away.

"Of course Shiroheki-sama." the scientist murmured while his gaze was on the floor and he didn't dare to move until the silver white haired boy had vanished.

The ANBU operative gaped at the scene in front of him, had that child just? It seemed so; he would have to have a close eye on how the other scientists and guards reacted to the white haired boy and then find a way to use it to his advantage, maybe there was a way out of this nightmare.

**Scene 2**

Shiroheki was annoyed, another unneeded mission which took him further away from his siblings than he wanted, they were still so fragile and this time he couldn't even leave Karin behind, Orochimaru and his orders were becoming a problem more and more often and Shiroheki was now at a point at which he started to seriously consider removing his pack from Orochimaru's sphere of influence.

The silver white haired boy was traveling alongside Karin and a Jounin from the main hideout, a burly brown haired man in his thirties. Shiroheki hadn't bothered to remember his name; he was weaker than him and actually thought that he had the power to make him obey. The only thing that he was, was a nuisance. The three hadn't traveled far from the compound when they encountered a major distraction, a Konoha ANBU team.

**Kakashi Interlude**

They were on their way back of an emergency mission in Lightening where they had killed a traitor and spread some counter intelligence. Normally Kakashi wouldn't have been chosen for this mission because of his status as the team leader of a fresh Genin team but with the disappearance of ANBU Hawk they had needed a tracking specialist. The mission had been a success and while they were still alert of their surroundings they were glad to soon be crossing into Fire Country territory.

A change in the wind carried noises and then scents close nearby to Kakashi. The silver haired Jounin stiffened and nearly missed the next branch, what? The scent was somehow very familiar though he was sure that he had never smelled it before. With a few rapid hand signs he alerted his team and changed direction.

When they finally crossed paths with the ninja team in vicinity Kakashi was deluding himself, because this… this really couldn't be happening. The ANBU team jumped into the path of the three ninja and surrounded them. The Hatake's eyes were fixated on the white silver haired figure of a preteen with cold yellow eyes. His brain may try to deny what he was seeing but his nose wasn't fooled, in front of him stood a close relative, a very close relative… maybe even his progeny? No that couldn't be the boy was too old for that.

"Konoha." The oldest one spat out while he crouched slightly in position that would allow him to attack in an instant.

Kakashi had never seen the sign on his forehead before, was a new village cropping up somewhere? And how the hell had they gotten hold of a Hatake child?

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked bluntly.

**Shiroheki Interlude**

Now THIS was interesting.

Shiroheki really hadn't expected to meet up with his biological father in this. Behind the white mask was clearly Hatake Kakashi hidden away, and from the way he was tensed up he had recognized Shiroheki's smell. So apparently Shiroheki had inherited his senses from him and they weren't leftovers from his life before.  
The reincarnated dog demon was conflicted, on one hand he really wanted to get on with the mission so he could return to his pack as fast as possible on the other hand he wanted to learn more about the man that was now his father and if he could measure up to his honorable Otou-sama in his last life.

"We are leaving!" the imbecile of the main hideout now pressed out and made motions to break through the lose formation around them.

"No. Stay. I want some questions answered." Hatake Kakashi's voice broke no argument.

The man was definitely an Alpha who was used to obedience. Shiroheki could respect that and the ingrained behavior from his last life made him agreeable to obey but unfortunately the idiot Orochimaru sent with them was correct, they really needed to go and so the silver white haired shinobi slightly opened his legs to be able to jump easier.

The Hatake had clearly seen his actions because his gaze drifted from the Sound Jounin over to him and fixated him with an unreadable stare before pressing out, "I said stay."

Shiroheki stiffened and suppressed an instinctive baring of his throat; throughout his last life his education had been geared to obeying his lord and father's every wish. Kakashi may not be such an all encompassing person as the Inu no Taisho was but he was powerful in his own right and so Shiroheki relaxed again and gave an acknowledging nod into his biological father's direction.

He was curious how this encounter would play out.

**Kakashi Interlude**

"Hatake Kakashi." came the cool voice of the child in front of him that smelled so much like himself.

"You know my name." Kakashi answered trying to desperately think of any incident that could have resulted in the boy in front of him. Was it possible that he had half siblings that he didn't know about?

"Of course I know the name of one half of my biological make up." Shiroheki answered dryly, the question had been somewhat dump in his opinion.

The answer itself let the rest of the ANBU team stiffen and watch morbidly fascinated this standoff between their taicho and… his son.

Across from them the eldest Sound ninja started to tense and looked nervously between the father and son duo that stared at each other before he finally burst out frustrated, "Shiroheki, let's go!"

"Be quiet." Shiroheki responded in an icy voice which shut up the now shaking shinobi beside him.

The red head on his other side seemed uncomfortable but she clearly took her cues from the silver white haired boy and so just kept staring at them with some trepidation.

XXXXXXXX

Shiroheki was annoyed with the stupid Orochimaru lackey, as if he had a right to order him around, a whispered command and a quick look put the idiot back into his place before Shiro's eyes returned to the man in front of him, Kakashi hadn't retreated at his voice, good.

"How old are you?" Kakashi wanted to know somewhat disconcerted, this couldn't be… there was simply no way he had a son that was thirteen or fourteen years old.

"Eleven." Shiroheki simply stated.

"That's impossible." the Hatake stated firmly.

At that time he had been running nonstop missions for ANBU and the few encounters that he had had were ALWAYS fellow ANBUs.

"I'm a… hhm well… there is no other way to call it… an experiment. Orochimaru got his hand on some of your genetic material while he still was a part of Konoha." Shiroheki stated calmly while he eyed his biological father.

"That…" the cat masked woman on the side clenched her hand while she shook with rage.

Around them the other Konoha ninja tensed. It was one thing to have an accident that resulted in a pregnancy but line theft was something COMPLETELY different; especially from a Konoha nuke nin.

"STOP talking." the Sound ninja hissed again and this time even tried to black mail him, "I will inform Orochimaru-sama about this conversation."

Shiroheki just sent him a side glance and then painfully blatant dismissed him before turning back to Kakashi to get a better read on his father, of course he would never hold a candle to his honorable father in his last life but it didn't seem as if he was completely scum either.

The shinobi behind the reincarnation shook with rage at this blunt dismissal before he seemingly calmed down somewhat. His next move proofed how stupid he truly was when the shinobi tensed and then attacked Shiroheki from behind. Karin beside him reacted as soon as she noticed the movement and was tensing her muscles to intercept the attack when Shiro turned around in a nearly liquid move and beheaded the idiot with a lazy move of his chakra whip.

A sigh escaped him and he frowned slightly and said with disdain, "Useless."

His eyes then returned calmly to Kakashi who had tensed to protect his… son, progeny, the experiment with his genes? from the attack of the foreign ninja.

"So your name is Shiroheki… would you consider coming with us to Konoha?" Kakashi asked somewhat wary.

His… son was undeniable strong and he didn't particular feel any desire to drag him back to Konoha by force, especially not when his team was exhausted from the mission they had just finished. While Kakashi was sure that they wouldn't have a lot of problems with Shiroheki and the red head behind him, he didn't want to chance it. The death of the shinobi that had attacked him showed that Shiroheki had no problem with killing. Kakashi also didn't want to think about the repercussions if he FORCED the boy to come with them. That could seriously throw a wrench into their nonexistent relationship Kakashi thought dryly.

Behind Shiroheki Karin tensed and stepped a bit closer to her protector, she was unsure what the Konoha nin would do to her if they only wanted Shiroheki.

"It depends on what would happen to me and mine." Shiro countered in an even voice.

That was turning out to be a surprisingly good day Shiroheki thought. He had played with the notion of moving his pack to Konoha since the moment Hawk had given him more and more information about his home village. Even if the ANBU operative clearly had been biased it still sounded a whole lot safer than leaving his young siblings with a group of more or less sane scientists and a megalomaniac leader that was unfortunately still more powerful than Shiroheki, he would need at least seven more years to have even an inkling of a chance against the snake Sannin. Cutting his ties with Orochimaru was probably the best that he could do for his pack, no matter the repercussions.

"Yours?" came now the curious reply of the woman that smelled like Orochimaru but at the same time not. After a second more careful sniff she smelled just like snakes, interesting.

"My siblings and those under my protection," Shiro deigned to clarify, he had learned that he had to explain his reasoning to these humans who wouldn't just take one worded answers.

"Siblings," Kakashi said somewhat faintly.

"I have five. All of your blood." Shiro clarified.

The reincarnation was somewhat curious how his father in this life would take the news. He was aware that finding out that one had six children was a bit much, even for demons who could have litters… though at least those could prepare for the possibility, the humans couldn't. To Kakashi's credit the only thing that he noticed was the smell that changed from disbelieve to panic and resignation and how Kakashi's body tensed and released rapidly.

"They are welcome, of course." the biggest of the shinobi stated in his place, clearly noticing that Kakashi was… out of it.

"Hhm, very well. Follow me." Shiro acknowledged before he turned back to where he had come from.

He smelled the insecurity and worry of the red haired girl beside him and so sent her a glance and a, "Karin, come."

He had learned that reassurance worked the best with the emotional females in his pack. The red head dutifully followed him while he led the ANBU team to Orochimaru's most eastern hideout.

"How strong is the hideout and with what kind of resistance will we have to deal?" the Bear masked ANBU asked gruffly.

"Not a lot when I make my intentions clear, a little bit less than half of them will try to fight. There are mostly Genin level with a few Chunin and low Jounin."

"I would have thought there would be stronger opponents." asked the shinobi with the chinchilla mask.

"This is only an outpost; most of the ninja working here have been coerced or threatened into this service. The only ones that are truly loyal to Orochimaru are his thugs and the few fanatics that are at the main bases, the rest does what he says because he can easily kill them or use them as experiments." Shiro said coldly.

"How many?"

"How many what?"

"People are in this base and how many are loyal to you."

"Hhm, twenty two who need to be either restrained or killed and twenty six that belong to me… including the prisoners."

"What do you mean they belong to you."

"They do what I say and I protect them, they do something against me, I either punish them or kill them." Shiro simply stated.

"Harsh.", the biggest of the shinobi said emotionless.

"That's life." Shiroheki simply answered before falling silent.

**Scene 3**

"Hawk!" came the harsh exclaim of Mouse who instantly was at the prison cell of the missing ANBU and presumed dead operative.

"Mouse." Hawk answered disbelieving.

Shiro walked calmly closer and disengaged the prison door without triggering the alarms or the instant knockout seal that was used on prisoners.

"We are leaving for Konoha." Shiro said calmly.

Hawk burst into laughter, "Did I convince you?"

"Hhm." was his only answer.

The ANBU members released the rest of the prisoners, who were two civilian members of the Mist Yuki clan before following Shiro into the corridor of his pack.

"Ni-sama, you are back." came the happy but calm call from the little silver haired toddler girl that now made her way over to him.

Her dark eyes widened slightly when she saw the other males with animal masks and her step faltered for a second before it renewed when she noted that Shiro's body language was relaxed.

"Shizuka." Shiro simply acknowledged.

He didn't say anything else but when she reached him and put her hands around his leg he simply looked down for a moment before he started moving again. The little girl happily followed him into the corridor while sending curious glances at the men behind them, especially Kakashi. The young child noticeably scented the air a few times but while she looked confused she didn't say anything until they had reached their rooms.

"Ni-sama? Who are they?" the little silver haired girl finally asked.

"They are Konoha ANBU, they will take us to Konoha and the silver haired one behind the dog mask is Hatake Kakashi, our biological father." Shiro answered her calmly while he opened the door to their den, the comforting scent of his siblings instantly calmed him down.

"Ni-tan, ni-tan? We are leaving?" came the high pitched voice from Hideaki.

The boy had still problems with some pronunciations but his sentences while still simple were now all grammatically correct, Shizuka had been the same and Shiroheki assumed that the youngest three would be similar.

"Yes, do as Karin tells you."

"Hai!" came the happy voices of his five younger siblings before Shiro veered away from the entrance room into the side room that served as his weapon room.

With a few quick movements he disengaged the seals before starting to seal up all his weapons and armor. It was an advantage to have an Uzumaki in his pack he thought idly while all the metal vanished into the pre prepared scrolls. He had given the red head the task to keep all rooms well stocked with them so that should they ever have to get away fast it would be easy to pack everything together.

A quick gaze back showed that his younger siblings were taking a keen interest in Kakashi; they playfully growled and whined up at him while they touched his legs and knees. Shizuka the calmest of them all was giggling while she watched over their younger siblings. Karin just came through from the back rooms in which she and the pups had slept till now and gave him a quick hand wave. Good, she had packed up the back rooms and was now working on her study. Shiro had known that it was a good idea to take the red head into his pack, even if she had some strange habits she was more than her weight worth in gold.

Shiro finished and was then ambushed by a mischievous grinning Haru.

"Up pwease." the youngest of the siblings stated and stretched her hands in his direction.

Inwardly Shiro sighed but complied and settled her on his hip while he returned to the ANBUs in his front room. She was still a baby and so Shiroheki felt lenient enough to indulge her, furthermore he had the advantage of NOT being born as the heir to the throne of the Western lands in this life; it meant he could indulge his siblings a bit even if his own memories would never allow himself to behave in any other way than perfection.

"We are nearly finished." he stated and watched as Kakashi stroked Hideaki's silver locks with a fascinated look in his eyes.

Shiroheki had to hand it to his biological father, he may have not known about them until now but he seemed amiable none the less to his children.

'He better be.' thought Shiro darkly.

He may have made a lot of mistakes with handling Inuyasha in his last life but he would do his very best to take care of the half siblings he had received in this one.

His senses picked up Shizuka, the elder waiting patiently outside the den. With the exception of Karin no one of his pack had ever been allowed to enter his siblings' living space without dying in a gruesome way. Shiroheki didn't tolerate anybody there, the risk was simply too big.

With a slight incline of his head and a lazy glance out of the corner of his eyes he gave the medic nin permission to speak.

"We are finished with the preparations."

"Tell Saito to send out some scouts, and then assemble in front of the entrance."

"Hai, Shiroheki-sama." The blue haired woman said before vanishing back into the passages.

Out of the corner of the room a tired ANBU Hawk chuckled, "You say jump and they ask how high."

"Your point?" Shiroheki asked coldly.

ANBU Hawk had been by far the most interesting person in the whole hideout; from him he tolerated small amounts of insolence, though even he was dancing on a fine line at the moment.

**Scene 4**

"Such insolence." The grey haired woman said offended.

"I don't concern myself with has-beens that desperately try to cling to power although they should know there strength and weaknesses."

"How dare…" the grey haired man now tried to interfere.

"You three reek of deception, treachery and greediness. I can't stand individuals that betray their alpha… or steal body parts of the deceased." The last part was said while he looked directly at Danzo.

Beside him Sarutobi narrowed his eyes "What do you mean with stealing body parts."

"He reeks of half decayed flesh and a similar donor than my father's left eye… his body didn't accept the parts well and now he is decaying from the inside out… quite a fitting."

"Danzo…" Sarutobi whispered dangerously "Is there any truth in Shiroheki-kun's words."

Shimura sneered before he suddenly jumped at Shiro. The reincarnated dog demon had already smelled the coming deceit and met him half in the air, his whip already out and with a precise swipe he separated Danzo's feet above the knees from the rest of his body, the heat and corroding chakra instantly cauterized the wounds but with just that lazy hand movement he had taken Danzo's mobility. Shiroheki watched as the shock paralyzed the old body in front of him and retracted his chakra whip in a smooth motion, he didn't think that the other two would dare anything.

Sarutobi's face hardened and snapped at his ANBU to bring Danzo into T&I and get a medic. The moment the ANBU's had vanished he rounded on Shiroheki and released some killer intent.

"What you have said better be the truth…" the unspoken threat hung in the air.

Shiroheki suddenly realized that he had underestimated Sarutobi. Unlike the three other elders, the Hokage was still a very real threat to him and so the silver haired boy just nodded while he stubbornly resisted showing any signs of submission. No matter how much he respected the strength of the head of Konohagakure the only one Shiroheki would ever bow in submission to was his father. With a last hard gaze at him the Sandaime left his office to follow after his ANBU, on the threshold he turned around once again.

"Koharu, Homura if I find out you did anything else than going home and keeping your mouths shut there will be some very unpleasant consequences in your future too!"

**Scene 5**

"You stink. Get rid of your perfume you are a kunoichi not a bumbling civilian." Shiroheki told Sakura ice cold.

Said pink haired girl had to swallow and suppress the need to burst into tears.

"Stop crying, go inside and take a shower; Karin show her."

Subdued and shocked Sakura followed Shiroheki's order and a silent Karin gently tugged her into the house, it didn't even occur to the pink haired teenager to dismiss his order. Feeling satisfied Shiroheki turned to the two male students of his father.

"HEY, that was really rude! You can't just order Sakura-chan around!" the blonde bellowed while the black haired one kept stoically silent.

Great, of course one of his father's students would be an Inu Yasha copy.

"I just did. Now lower your voice I can hear you just fine."

**Scene 6**

"Don't worry fair maiden I will protect you with my life!" shouted the green clad abomination into Shiroheki's ear.

The Hatake let his eyes glide to a clearly frozen and unwilling Sakura before stepping in front of the taijutsu user and snarled a warning into his face.

"How unyouthful of you," The idiot then complained and returned to posturing to garner the favor of Sakura.

…why had he promised his father to not kill the idiots of this village again?

"Your advances are not welcome. Leave." Shiroheki grounded out, was that idiot daft or did he really not see how uncomfortable the pink haired kunoichi was?

"But the beautiful blossom of spring…" the idiot continued to test his patience.

"Is not interested. Leave." The last part was emphasized with some killer intent.

Shiroheki didn't even wait for the idiot to react and just pulled Sakura with him to continue his path, was he now also responsible in warding off mating posturing? He would have to talk with his father because that really shouldn't be his responsibility; Kakashi was Clan Head after all.

"Thank you." A still stunned genin kunoichi said, her eyes were wide and she shuddered a bit from the encounter.

"Remember how you felt at seeing this… male… posturing for you. Sasuke smells the same when he has an encounter with one of his fangirls."

Beside him Sakura blushed in humiliation before asking defeated "This is how Sasuke feels when I cheer for him?"

"With you it's more annoyance because you are his teammate and he sees you as someone to protect… still, you will have to learn how to control this urges, this is not how a young kunoichi of the Hatake clan should behave."

"Of the Hatake clan?"

"You are my father's student… no matter what the so called laws of Konoha say, this makes you part of the Hatake pack and with that your behavior will reflect on our clan."

Sakura swallowed "Ah… I'm sorry. I didn't know that."

"You are not stupid or unwilling to learn, just uninformed so it can be forgiven." Shiroheki conceded, at least she wasn't slow.

"… right then. Would you explain more?" Sakura asked tentatively.

'Well, look at that', Shiroheki thought interested it seems as if at least one was willing to learn, even if it meant that he had to speak even more.

"Pack always comes first."

Sakura nodded understandingly at that.

"Your pack also includes your parents and friends… maybe even acquaintances and because we live in Konoha, Konoha shinobi and kunoichi." Shiroheki waited until she nodded again before continuing, "Hatake Kakashi is the alpha, you do NOT challenge him. Never. You may ask him about his decisions in a non confrontational way when you are in private or during lessons but never in public. You can't feel it yet but there is a reason why he is in the bingo books of all major Elemental Countries. Somebody on his level doesn't have to be outwardly intimidating, and just because he has a soft spot for puppies doesn't mean that he won't punish you when you really mess up."

"Feel it?" the pink haired girl asked confused.

"Yes, in time you will hopefully develop a better sense of your surroundings and you should be able to pick up on people who hide their power. At least that is what …. Sensei told me. My siblings and I were bred to have enhanced senses, we knew the moment we started to develop long time memory who is weaker than us and who we should be wary of."

"But he is your father."

"And that is another reason why we should respect him."

"Okay… no challenging Kakashi-sensei… aren't you an alpha too?"

"I have the ability to be an alpha but I'm number two in the ranking order as long as Kakashi is alive… though I too won't tolerate challenges to my person."

Sakura simply nodded before hesitating and asking "Kakashi is alpha and you are his heir… but how do I know my place?"

"Right know you are one of the half grown puppies of the pack, mistakes and insubordination will be tolerated to a certain degree. Your status as a half grown will protect you but not forever. Learn to fight and defend yourself or pick up a skill that is valuable to your clan and you status will grow once you are an adult."

Determinedly Sakura nodded her head before saying goodbye and running home, she had some research to do.

**Scene 7**

Shiroheki snarled at the strangely emotionless boy in front of him, he wouldn't stand for that kind of insult. With a move that was too fast for Yamato-sensei across the field and Sai in front of Shiroheki, he had the boy pressed face down into the earth and was rubbing his face into the dirt.

"Human communication doesn't work like this. What you said was insulting… don't do it again." He growled before letting go of the black haired boy.

Yamato had shunshined the moment he seemed to have caught Shiroheki's killer intent but when he was about to interfere the dispute was already over.

Sai was tense and immediately put some distance between the two of them when he was let go, he kept a wary eye on Shiro's cold ones but didn't make further attempts to retaliate.

"I don't tolerate insults to my person, if you don't know how to differentiate between what is insulting and normal communication you will learn the hard way." Shiro growled before turning around and leaving the confused half grown puppy.

Whoever had been in charge of raising Sai should be buried alive; the boy really hadn't smelled of anything but confusion. Shiroheki sighed inwardly, great beside his own siblings and the half grown puppies his Otou-sama had in his charge Shiroheki would now also have to raise this bundle of half learned responses and unhealthy instincts. The white haired Hatake had to suppress the urge to sigh out loud; it was quickly shaping up to be one of those days.


	11. Teen WolfxZombie Apocalypsex SI

_So... a friend of mine and I play this game, we tell each other a few random words or phrases (genres, fandoms, everything goes) and then have a minute or two to come up with a plotline – this one I found hilarious and just had to share ;D._

_**Words:** _ _Teen Wolf, Zombie Apocalypse, Self Insert/OC, protagonist has to be human, cocktail cherries, demons (on a side note: cocktail cherries are really fucking creepy, they are mystical objects of love and dating, just so you know ;))_

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Oneshot**

Erin wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry… though out of principal she preferred crying. It always let her get rid of the tension in her body though right now neither of this seemed to be a good idea, not with the growling and snarling mass behind her. Cursing under her breath Erin sped up again, she hadn't noticed the Walkers coming down the road while she looted the bookstore for anything useful and entertaining until the last moment and then she didn't have another choice but to run instead of hide. The blonde former history teacher sprinted around the last corner of the abandoned town and finally saw the bike she had left behind there. Within moments she was up in the saddle and hightailed out of sight of the undead behind her. Only fifteen minutes later when she was slick with sweat and could barely draw a breath without the stitch in her side being unbearable she allowed herself to slow down again. Another five minutes and she had finally reached her destination. Her home, the one she had been living in for about a month now, ever since the whole mess had started. With a tired sigh Erin opened the half hidden back gate between the two tall trees and pushed her bike along the dirt road to the small house on the clearing.

The Mess like she liked to call it started with the day she decided she was desperate enough to attempt to summon a crossroad demon.

Yeah… she might have been drunk and completely, utterly at her wits' end.

Not only that she did something this stupid, no that she had actually believed it could work.

Unfortunately or maybe thankfully? it did.

Erin had just been diagnosed with young-onset ALS and it was progressing rapidly. The doctors gave her less than three years until she would die. She hadn't even turned thirty yet and then that. Some people could deal with being told that they would die but she couldn't, she wouldn't.

After the diagnosis she had been in denial for a week. Took leave from work after presenting the principal of the high school she had been working in with the results. Since then she had ignored all incoming calls and just drank herself to sleep each night.

It was the fourth day after the diagnosis, a Sunday and what she didn't realize at the time but probably saved her from the whole eternal agony thing, a full moon.

Erin burrowed made her way drunkenly into the backyard of her apartment complex to the spot where the two dirt paths crossed each other and burrowed her picture with the graveyard dirt and the bone she had taken from her deceased black cat Tom. Fat Tom that had died four years ago would hopefully forgive her for that wherever he was, cat heaven or something like that.

When the demon appeared she at first hadn't been able to process that it had actually worked… and even after the Supernatural recipe… damn.

The… woman? With the beautiful long black hair and Spanish ancestry had coyly put her head to the side and asked her what she wanted.

Erin had been long past roaring drunk or she probably would have high tailed it out of there but she hadn't and so instead she blurted out, "You are hot."

The demon in front of her seemed amused and said "Why thank you, so why have you called me."

With a sigh Erin's gaze landed on the nearly empty bottle of alcohol that had been her companion for the last few hours, "Desperation and a bottle of tequila."

The supernatural being raised an eyebrow before saying "Your sarcasm is cute but not what I meant."

Erin sighed again, "I was diagnosed with ALS, I have about three years."

"Ah, so you want to live longer."

"Something like that." Erin agreed before her eyes returned to the demons body, "So is it true what the producers of Supernatural say, do you possess human bodies? Meat suits?"

The demon snorted before she shook her head and grinned "You are an obnoxious one alright. Bravery or stupidity?"

"Stupidity of course," Erin answered while she sat down on the park bench behind her and gestured at the seat beside her "and of course the bottle of tequila." She added while she lifted up the bottle that she had sat down on said bench along with the glass of cocktail cherries she had been snacking on the whole evening.

The female demon snorted and sat down beside her and watched her seemingly contently "You are completely drunk aren't you? Now normally I would have either already sealed the deal or dismissed myself but you had the guts to summon me on a full moon so I will listen to your sorrows darling." She purred out while she softly ran her hand through Erin's blonde hair.

Erin was strangely amused by that and offered the demon the tequila bottle and the cocktail cherries. Instead of taking them instantly the demon threw her head back and laughed loudly at the moon.

"You really have no idea what you are doing sweetheart, do you?"

"Not really? Want to tell me what I just did that made you laugh or what is up with the full moon?"

"Hhm, well normally we don't actually tell this to humans because the less you know the better but I'm in a good mood so why not. You offered to share food and drink with me, that alone gives me some influence over you my dear sweet Erin. It makes it easier for me to sway you to accept my offer … additionally it is the full moon, this gives most supernatural beings a boost, I am stronger today than on any other day of the month. No real practitioner would ever summon a crossroad demon on a full moon."

"So you have less work on that day? Like your day off."

"Pretty much. So about this deal."

"I want to live my life on my terms, without the ALS…" Erin trailed off while she watched the demon take a sip of the tequila, her lips looked very enticing, "You really are a gorgeous bitch, so the question from before again, do you possess humans or is that your real form?"

The demon still looked amused and sighed while fished out a cherry from the glass and bit into the fruit.

"You are so curious… but yes this body was from a human. She traded her body and soul for twenty years of beauty, money and fidelity of her husband."

Erin hummed thoughtfully "Is the soul thing a done deal? Or do you HAVE to take my soul as payment?"

The demon raised an eyebrow at that "You are a smart cookie, even drunk. Not many ask me that, they just assume. It has to be at least an equivalent exchange on my side, the soul just happens to be the most valuable that you possess."

Erin's looked baffled at the demon and then started to giggle "Kinda makes sense you are the loan sharks of the supernatural aren't you."

"Precisely… but I won't tell you what is worth how much, make me an offer and we will see."

"I want to continue to exist, I mean my consciousness, not forever of course but I want my thoughts and mind to be untouched and in a healthy body, hell it doesn't even have to be this body. You can have that as a new suit if you want but I want to live a life."

The demons looked surprised at Erin before slowly starting to smile in a pleased expression.

"Hhm… does it have to be this universe? I could transfer your mind into another healthy body whose soul has already left but that would cost more than what you are willing to give, sending you into your dying body in a parallel universe and healing it on the other hand is easy… and I would even erase my touch on your soul so that you wouldn't automatically land in Hell."

"That's… really? Can I ask why?"

"Why it doesn't cost so much or why I'm not tainting your soul?"

"Either, both?"

"You and all of your other selves are connected even through universes and your own body can accept your soul a lot easier than another one… and well you are amusing, entertainment doesn't happen too often in my line of business. Also it's a full moon and you invited me to eat and drink with you, each minute I spend here in the world of the living I get more powerful, I feel generous today so I will consider this also a form of payment."

Erin snorted again while she watched the other woman munch on more cocktail cherries.

"You just like to stuff yourself with food and alcohol." Erin then observed.

"True." was the acknowledgment.

Erin couldn't tell why she said the next thing and later on she wondered if the demon had influenced her but she than offered "Come on, let's go up into my apartment and pig out on Junk Food. You won't vanish until we have sealed the deal will you?"

It was a surreal experience to listen to Nyx, as the Spanish looking demon introduced herself after their fifth shot while she reminiscent about former deals with stupid mortals. Erin wisely kept her mouth shut and just absorbed what she was being told. Their night ended at three in the morning when Nyx finally kissed her to seal the deal.

It was definitely a kiss worth remembering.

**XXXXXXXXX**

When Erin awoke next she was stretched out in a backyard, lying uncomfortably while her mind tried to sort things into order.

Right, Nyx had said that she would land in the body of another self of her that had just died and that Nyx demon powers would take care of the injuries. Erin slowly got up while she carefully took in her surroundings and then what she was wearing… to be more precisely the fact that she was reeking of stale sweat and summer heat, what the hell was she a homeless in this universe? Her only belonging other than the clothes on her back, seemed to be a ratty backpack filled with some clothes and a few glasses of cocktail cherries.

A growl from somewhere to her left made her look up and answered her question, the shuffling form and the smell told Erin everything. With a curse she threw the backpack on her back and scrambled up the fire escape on the building closest to her.

She had landed smack dab in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse.

Of fucking course she did!

**XXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Six months later**

Erin was seriously getting more than a bit frustrated, for months now she had equipped her car with everything that she needed, from non perishable food to fucking potted cocktail tomatoes and carrots in the back seat and now it was all gone. Fucking cannibalistic assholes!

Erin had only escaped by the skin of her teeth and was now hiding in a half burned out house in one of the coastal cities of California. Seeing zombified surfers shuffling around the beach was really the last thing that she had ever wanted to see.

Distracted her eyes wandered over the nearly empty room, as far as she had seen most of the house that hadn't been destroyed had already been looted. She was about to leave when her eyes landed on the small side table hidden behind the giant washer dryer-combo, there was a bottle of vodka and…

Cocktail cherries.

Erin felt the hysterical laugher bubble up but couldn't stop herself from letting the animal sound out.

"Cocktail cherries, cocktail cherries. Oh my fucking GOD! Why do there always have to be cocktail cherries when this life throws me a curve ball, are they … like a plot device of the universe?"

A sound to her right let her freeze. Clamping down the need to curse Erin quickly scampered out of the room. Though not without grabbing the see through glass, plot device or not she was hungry.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**A month later**

Erin stared at the high school in front of her and then at the shuffling and growling figure of what looked like a wolfed out, zombified Peter Hale fighting against Scott McCall, Derek Hale and Isaac Lahey in there beta forms, flashing eyes, claws and everything. She had not only landed in a Zombie Apocalypse but this was also a Teen Wolf Crossover.

Her life!

…

And where the fuck were her cocktail cherries?


	12. N Sealing Hiccup

**Dimension travel for Advanced**

**A month before the Chunin Exams**

„... anyway and this, this is the result of all our research!" Honda crowed out drunkenly beside his comrades.

Kakashi couldn't help but send a glance over to the table were the science geeks from the Jutsu Development Division sat. He had a bad feeling about what was about to happen.

"Honda are you crazy, you can't just take an experimental seal out of R&D!" another, a bit less drunk shinobi said with big eyes while he tried to remove the seal out of Honda's hands.

"M not stupid," said ninja replied slurred "Look, I'm not using it… and anyway it doesn't need chakra to activate it needs blood… the chakra draw is too strong for anything living anyway, that's why it dra- draws from the nature around it… so nothing's going to happen!" the brown haired idiot continued to ramble.

And just at that moment fate proofed the idiot wrong and with the next wave of his hand it flew out of his grip and landed on the thankfully empty table across from them.

Kakashi really felt the impending doom now, he exchanged a somewhat worried glance with Asuma who was also giving the drunks on the other table his full attention now. Kakashi made to stand to stop the now stumbling Honda from reclaiming the seal when said seal started to lighten up, unbeknownst to them there had still be some blood left from the fight that had broken out on that table only minutes before they had sat down and half dried or not, blood was blood.

"Uh oh." Honda said distractedly while he watched the seal activate, he just knew that he would be in trouble now, damn it.

XXXXXXX

The bar had gone quiet when the seal had started to glow, all the ninjas around it had tensed and were drawing weapons when the whole table was encased before it vanished and in its place another identical appeared.

Only this time there was somebody sitting at it.

…

"What the fuck?" came a growled question from the only female of the trio that had just appeared, "NARUTO! Have you been playing around with space time jutsus again?" she growled out in disbelief her long pink hair falling over her shoulders.

Kakashi choked.

Before him sat an older looking Team Seven, a surprisingly hot Team Seven, all grown up and confident, nothing like the brats he now had.

"Sakura-chan whatever this is, it's not my fault! You know I take the order to not work on seals while drunk seriously… baa-chan would kill me otherwise." A defensive blonde cried out, and dear kami-sama he looked like a slightly younger Minato-sensei with whiskers and a slightly rounder face structure.

"It better be not, dobe. Remind me what happened last time when you tried to improve on the Hirashin after a night of binge drinking?… we landed in the middle of the Kirigakure main square during the Third Shinobi War and had to fight our way out with a hangover!"

"Ahahaha," Naruto now laughed awkwardly while he rubbed his head, "but seriously this time it's not my fault and at least we are in Konoha… we are in Konoha aren't we? Or is this one of those alternative dimensions were the village is called Shiyougakure or Edahagakure?"

"No, this is Konohagakure," Anko piped up "And who the fuck are you?"

"Anko-senpai!" Sakura cried out in delight and she turned in the direction of the snake summoner, "So good to see you… well a version of you!"

"Anko-senpai?" the purple haired kunoichi crowed out delighted.

"Yup, Haruno Sakura, I'm on Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi. You were my senpai during my short stint in T&I with Ino!"

"Really now?" Anko purred in Sakura's direction waiting for a reaction but the pink haired kunoichi just returned the leer with one of her own, dear god.

"Yup, the boys are too dense for any kind of subtle infiltration or information gathering so I learned the basics." Sakura continued to say cheerfully.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined while Sasuke sent her an annoyed glance.

The pink haired kunoichi just giggled and stretched out further in her chair, Kakashi had to admit that she was captivating with her long pink hair, green eyes and gorgeous body, he was beginning to dread the coming teenage years.

"Oi, oi guys look, there is Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei, oh and Kurenai-sensei!" the blonde Jinchuuriki laughed excitedly, cheeks flushed from the alcohol.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other for a moment before snorting and quickly downing their sake bottles.

"Perfect, Naruto than you can find out why we have landed in a different dimension… AGAIN. Sasuke and I are getting drunk, just like we are supposed to do!" Sakura said blithely before while waving the now empty sake bottle around.

"Oi not fair! Why does it have to be me?" Naruto pouted, honest to god pouted and it drew some unintentional coos out of some kunoichis around them.

"Because you are the one that can't get drunk without chakra suppressants, dobe." Sasuke replied dryly between sips of sake.

"Shut up teme." came the reflexive answer.

Sakura just giggled and the grinned diabolically at Sasuke "So you haven't answered my question yet. How did the evening turn out with those blonde twins."

Sasuke glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, and kami-sama was that a wicked grin that he was sending her? Kakashi felt close to a heart attack!

Instead of giving her a straight answer he just reclined, took another sip and drawled "I don't kiss and tell."

"Since when?" Sakura snorted unladylike and waggled her eyebrows before she whispered something into Sasuke's direction that made the dark haired shinobi just shake his head and grin even more.

Kakashi was distracted from the surreal scene on the table in front of him by a Naruto that was clearly in his twenties, blonde, gorgeous and was now glancing down on their table.

"Yo Kakashi-sensei! You don't happen to know why we are here?"

"Naruto," Kakashi acknowledged because he recognized the chakra signature that was lazily curling in the body before him before pointing at the table beside him "They were playing around with an experimental seal before you showed up."

Kakashi wasn't above pointing out the culprits to return to his observations, because when would he ever get another chance to observe a Mirai Team Seven?

The blonde before him scowled fiercely and then turned his attention to the drunk geek shinobi "Oi you fuckers, sealing while drunk is a stupid idea, I should know!" before he wandered over and started to interrogate a now nearly sober Honda.

Kakashi's attention drifted back over to his other two students, Sakura had just stood up and was making her way to the bar. She moved like a dancer with all the grace of a jungle cat. She had definitely grown up into a strong kunoichi. Once she had arrived at the bar she slammed down a stack of Ryo notes with a few words before she returned with ten sake bottles that she placed between herself and Sasuke. The last Uchiha stretched nearly indecently, plucked a bottle up and toasted to Sakura before downing it. Sakura followed him within moments. Kakashi was still feeling out of depth while he listened to the easy banter between Sakura and Sasuke.

"You are such a fucker Sasuke! You KNEW that I wanted to take them home with me too, learn to share!" Sakura now cried out between laughing hiccups.

Sasuke just snorted before he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively "You know what, let's make a competition out of that, the next time we find a set a twins that suit both our tastes let's see who can make them scream louder."

Sakura seemed to think this over before she grinned and said "Deal. But you know what, best to give Naruto heads up or he is going to complain for days on end about us scarring him mentally, and I really don't want his fiancée on our case."

Sasuke snorted before he shook his head "I still can't believe that the dobe is engaged and is going to marry in three months."

Sakura's smile became less leering and more happy "Hey, she is good for him."

"Never said she wasn't… just… marriage…" at the last word Sasuke shuddered.

Sakura just burst out in laugher again before she waggled with her eyebrows herself "You know if you want to resurrect the Uchiha clan you will have to marry someone."

Sasuke sighed deeply "Don't remind me… the elders have been getting on my case lately, fuck Koharu-sama cornered me in the market district only two days ago…" before smirking, "Any chance you would still marry me?"

Sakura's laugher was audible throughout the whole bar "Are you propositioning me Sasuke? But no sorry that train has left a long LONG time ago. I'm much too busy to play clan matriarch."

"How is your combat medic nin program going?" Sasuke changed the topic.

"Oh kami-sama, don't remind me. You know I'm really thankful for all the interest in it but really half of the hopefuls are either arrogant fucks or afraid of their own shadow and have no idea what they are agreeing to. And Shishou banned me from beating some sense into them… I'm really tempted to just drop them into basic Rookie ANBU training for a week or two to weed out the truly pathetic ones."

Sasuke just shook his head "You aren't serious, they are all at least high Chunin level aren't they? They should have experienced some combat by now."

"Afraid of their own shadows, Sasuke! Two out of three are only in the program because of the prestige and the phenomenal pay." Sakura whined frustrated before she downed another bottle.

"You could pull a Kakashi on them." Sasuke suggested.

Sakura sighed "As much as emotionally manipulating them until they either get their shit together or quit the program sounds like fun, the hospital director would be on my case for scarring the medic nins that we desperately need."

Beside Kakashi Asuma raised an eyebrow and mouthed "Pulling a Kakashi?" and Kurenai sent him a Look that promised some quality time in a few nasty genjutsus, fuck.

"It worked with us." Sasuke commented with a shrug and another sip of sake.

Sakura grinned at that before shaking her head "You know normally I'm all for Kakashi's sink or swim method but as I said, not an option."

"What about the Genin that fail their Genin test?" Sasuke suggested.

"That at least is already taken care of, Tsunade-shishou and I get the pick of the Genin with the best chakra control and put them through the wringer until they are up to snuff, but that will take at least four years to yield results and we need combat medics now."

"Well, then we are fucked."

"Don't remind me," Sakura moaned, "We are so understaffed that I have been running A and S-Rank missions for months now beside my normal rotations with barely enough time to teach those hopefuls anything useful. We lost too much experienced field medics in the last five years."

"I could spare maybe two or three Hunter nin medics but I would rather not, I don't trust this lull in missing nin activity." Sasuke offered reluctantly.

"You don't have to apologize Sasuke, I know what you mean," Sakura nodded tiredly before smiling lightly "On another note Neji's team have all more than exceptional chakra control thanks to all the control techniques he put them through. I'm thinking about kidnapping them for a week or two to drill some basics into them before handing them over to some of the more experienced retired combat medics."

"Does Neji know? Or is he going to show up at our flat pissed as fuck like Kiba last week after you took his kunoichi." Sasuke asked sardonically.

"Don't worry I learned from my mistakes and already gave him heads up." Sakura waved his concern away before returning to her drink.

Kakashi couldn't help but snort at that, well looks like his brats had grown up interesting.


	13. Self-Insert, Sakura's younger sister, AU, ZA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just because...

Sakuno was running, her side was itching and her lungs were hurting but she knew if she stopped right now she would be dead. Behind her the noises of the dead were coming closer, they had been for the last 15 minutes and by now she didn’t dare to turn around anymore for fear of losing momentum. The pink haired girl had no plans of dying in a fucking zombie apocalypse after being reborn. There was just no way in hell.

Ever had the feeling of being stuck in a strange sort of Deja-vu?

Sakuno had felt like that since the day she realized she had been reborn after choking on a grape in her first life. Yup she had choked on a grape. Disregarding her intense dislike of the fruit in her second life there was another thing that was utterly driving her nuts. She had landed in a strange Naruto AU that played in the modern world, and apparently included a zombie apocalypse.

Once she had realized that her name was Haruno Sakuno and her four-year-older sister was named Sakura she had for a second feared that she would have to become a shinobi and kill people for a living. Only to calm down when she remembered that she was living in a modern day Kyoto. So she had taken the name quirk as a strange joke of the universe and forgot about it for the next ten or so years. Then she had one day come home and a blonde brat and a pale skinned emo sat on her couch and were squabbling about something. Namikaze Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke had been chosen to be her sisters partners in some pointless school project.

Sakuno had felt the urge to laugh hysterically and bang her head against the door.

Instead she had just nodded at the three seventeen-year-olds and vanished in her own room where she proceeded to have a minor break down. That day had also been pretty much the end of her sanity. From that moment Sakuno had decided to fuck it and just go with the flow.

Naruto and Sasuke were pretty cool to hang out with once Sakuno had bothered to get to know them. They played video games with her and now and then Sakuno could convince them to let her tag along when they and Sakura were meeting up with friends.

Like that she met Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata and many more familiar characters that were definitely NOT ninja in this life.

Uchiha Itachi was wildly acknowledged genius that had finished his law degree only to then become the lead singer of the Band Akatsuki that had the Asian fangirls and boys foaming at their mouths. He was also a surprisingly good listener and didn’t mind serving as a hiding place for a teenage girl when her family and school became too much for her.

Sakuno watched as the AU Rookie 9 graduated high school and started university. Sakura, predictably went into medicine while Naruto started to work in his father’s advertisement company and Sasuke went to the Police Academy.

Life was good.

And then the reports about riots popped up around the world in her last year of high school. Sakuno called it from day one, but did anyone listen to her? Of course not. Her new set of parents continued to go to work instead of barricading themselves with Sakuno in their flat until the worst blew over. They didn’t make it and it kind of hurt more than Sakuno had anticipated even when the Haruno elders weren’t as close to their daughters as other parents normally were. And on days on which she was not running for her life or scavenging for supplies she missed them with a fierce ache, but those days were few and far between.

When the strange riots increased instead of dying down and Sakuno felt secure in the knowledge that yes, she really had chosen the world with the impending Zombie Apocalypse, to be reborn into, she had begun to prepare like the paranoid fucker that she was nowadays.

Her first action was to call up Naruto and lay out everything she had gathered about the strange incidents until she had convinced him that yes, there was an impending Zombie Apocalypse coming and would he please lock himself up with her sister and the other moron that made up the third part of their trio? Naruto was a bit miffed at her sarcasm but knew her well enough by now that there would be consequences if he didn’t heed her orders. There was also a long weekend coming so he didn’t seem to mind too much about stocking up on a supply of non-perishables for the next month. To be on the safe side she had even emailed him a fucking list of what they would need. Sakuno figured that Naruto had pretty much rented luck for life so her sister and Sasuke would be relatively save in his presence.

She then proceeded to call every single one of her acquaintances and rattled down the same concise 5 sentences about the impending ZA. Sakuno didn’t care a single fuck if they thought she was crazy, she had given them a fair warning and if they didn’t heed that it was their own fault.

Itachi, who she had caught just before he got onto the plane to China, took one look at the news and agreed with her assessment of the situation. He promptly booked a flight to Japan and blackmailed/ cajoled the rest of his band members into doing the same. They agreed to meet up in Tokyo where their siblings and the main part of their acquaintances lived and studied.

With how calm everything was on that day Sakuno figured that she had another two to three days until shit hit the fan, which should have been enough time to get her parents to listen. Of course she clearly underestimated the dispersion time because during her 3rd period, literature with Hatake Kakashi, a tumult began outside her classroom.

Sakuno sighed deeply and led her head fall against her desk, of course it would start while she was still in school. Around her the other students had gone silent and looked worried about each other. Kakashi also stared warily at the entrance door but no one seemed to want to move, so Sakuno raised her hand.

“Yes, Haruno-chan?” Kakashi drawled.

“Permission to leave class early to prepare for the impending Zombie Apocalypse?” she asked dryly.

Around her her classmates whispered furiously by now.

“Zombie Apocalypse? You are such a freak Haruno.” The most popular girl said derisively.

“And you are a moron Yamaguchi. Haven’t you watched the news in the last 24 hours? There was all the information you need to depict the situation, the only thing that I underestimated is the speed with which it reached Japan, or I would have stayed at home today.” Sakuno answered bored and began to pick up her stuff.

Hatake-sensei looked torn between amusement, annoyance and a certain amount of wariness. Especially when the screams began. Hatake’s head came up and he stared at Sakuno with an unreadable gaze. Rumors had it that he had been special forces until losing an eye had pushed him into early retirement.

So Sakuno wasn’t very surprised when the otherwise so relaxed teacher barked at them, “Pack your things and check the local news. Class dismissed.”


	14. James Bond - Tailor!SI... and Zombies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I can. XD

_Adelaide Brisbois, the daughter of a Spanish mother and French father dies shortly before her 30th birthday – she was just about to start with her career in fashion design in Paris– is reborn and starts to remember her first live around her 14 birthday – her mother thinks it’s just Adelaide growing up – she thankfully has the same name – has black hair and steel grey eyes– though this time it’s Adelaide Crawford – she takes French and Spanish in school after remembering both languages – has of course excellent grades in those courses – in her free time she starts to make her own clothes – her mother is a bit baffled because she never shown any interest in that but soon accepts that as Adelaide’s new self – she even lets her create a few outfits for her - some everyday shirts and even dresses – Adelaide documents all her work and then starts to visit the tailors close by and in the end lands an informal apprenticeship with an old gentleman who has been making bespoke suits for decades – the approach is completely different than what she learned in design school in France and Adelaide enjoys this new chance – she spends most of her free time with the old man when she isn’t in school finishing her education – soon she receives on official apprenticeship with him and has a small income – she still lives with her second mother – who is just glad that her mood swings stopped and that she found something that she enjoys – Adelaide had distanced herself from her new friends but slowly gets used to them – she has a much more mature mindset but they are slowly growing up so it’s okay in certain amounts – she is 16 when she is allowed to take care of her first official client without her master looking over her shoulder – it is successful and the apprenticeship is declared finished – she takes the needed exams during the holidays and half a year before she is finished with school she also takes her final exam and gets her Diploma in Bespoke Cutting and Tailoring before she takes the last course_ _and gets her Diploma in Technical Textiles and Apparel –_

_for the next 4 years she works alongside her master creating bespoke suits and tailored dresses for the high society of London – she (22) then moves into a new flat and meets James Charlton (34) – who looks ridiculously similar to the Daniel Craig - James Bond – Adelaide already noticed that the movies and the whole story line don’t exist in this world – her neighbor is exactly how she pictures James Bond to be, suave, well dressed and with cuts and bruises now and then –when she sees a half ruined bespoke suit one day she gasps – she can’t help herself_

“What did you DO to this poor suit?” Adelaide said horrified, the seams on one arm were ripped and there was an unidentifiable substance on his back.

“Good evening to you too, Miss Crawford.” Charlton said sardonically.

“Yes, yes good evening. Again, what did you do to that poor suit?”

“I didn’t do anything, Miss Crawford. Please complain to the gentleman that thought it would be a good idea to attack me.”

Adelaide was only listening with half an ear while her eyes moved over the damage on the suit.

“This is the third destroyed bespoke suit I have seen you in. That hurts you know, my tailor heart is crying for all those beautiful fabrics that have been destroyed.”

“Ah. Professional outrage then and here I thought you were concerned about me by the way you ogle my ass every time we meet.”

“Don’t flatter yourself Charlton, I only admire the superb fitting. Your tailor does an exquisite job, does he know what you are doing with his works of art?”

At that the blonde grimaced, “He did an excellent job true. Unfortunately that’s over. He died three weeks ago. Heart attack.”

Adelaide bit her lower lip and became a bit more subdued, “He was an artist. I have to admit I have been taking notes about the fitting and how the fabrics move when you walk. My own master is an excellent tailor but what yours did was truly high end fashion.”

Charlton’s smile was just a hint of flirty “You want to search my closet, don’t you?”

Adelaide blushed and fidgeted and couldn’t look him in the eyes.

James chuckled, “Well… I have to admit that is the first time a woman was more interesting in my closest than my bedroom… I will consider it. Good day, Miss Crawford.”

“Good day, Mr. Charlton.” Adelaide answered with a small smile, smarmy bastard.

 

 _Adelaide gets to see the suits and also an experience of incredible sex – she takes his measurements and then makes him a suit as a thank you for letting her check his suits – she uses the designs she likes on her clients – and she gets a reputation for being an excellent tailor – a few months later James strolls into her shop – by then it is hers because her master decided to retire and spend his last years with his wife in the country side – she starts making suits for him and it is an obscene amount that he goes through in a year - she begins to experiment with different fabrics that give what she suspects to be a modern day James Bond more protection – they never talk about it but she reinforces his suits with Kevlar behind his breast pocket_  

 

“You never ask what I do for a living.”

“You don’t want me to, and to be honest I think I am a lot safer not knowing exactly.”

“Really now?”

“Yup.”

“Are you going to tell me what you think you know?”

“Hhm, nope. Try harder James.” – _suggestive_

“With pleasure.” 

 

_Two years later James catches Adelaide when she faints on the top stair of the stair case – he calls an ambulance and stays with her while they transfer her to the hospital_

“Ms. Crawford, how are you feeling?”

“I have a headache and I feel a bit sick but I can’t complain otherwise. What’s wrong with me?”

“Would you like to receive the news in private?”

“No. whatever I have, James would hear about it sooner or later.”

“Ah. Well then. Congratulations Ms. Crawford, you are pregnant.”

“… that’s impossible. We use condoms and my gynecologist told me that a pregnancy is nigh to impossible.” Adelaide said numbly while James beside her tensed.

“I assure you Ms. Crawford, it is quite possible. Condoms while normally a very good contraception method are not 100% fool proof. At the moment you are five weeks along and everything looks fine.”

Adelaide’s eyes were still wide while she stared at her doctor, not quite daring to look at James.

“When can she be released?” James interrupted Adelaide’s shocked musings.

“Right now, if you could sign this?”

XXXXXXXXX

“So… pregnant, huh?” James asked neutrally.

Adelaide looked up and into her lover’s blank face.

“James, I swear I had no idea… I…”

Her babbling was interrupted by a gentle hand on her arm, “Shh, I know. It’s not an accusation. More important is now what will happen.”

Adelaide bit her bottom lid and let her eyes wander to the ground while she fidgeted.

“I know that you don’t want any children James but… my doctor said the chance of me getting pregnant is really low. This may be my only chance of ever having a child…”

“So you want to keep it.”

Adelaide swallowed and nodded, she felt her eyes starting to tear up while she waited for James to walk out of her life. She was so focused on the inevitable rejection that she startled horribly when James walked up to her and enveloped her into a hug. Embarrassingly Adelaide burst into tears.

“Shh, it’s okay. This is your decision, love. If you want to keep the baby, you are keeping it. Just don’t expect me to drop everything and marry you.”

Adelaide snickered wetly at that, snuggling closer to James warm body.

“I don’t, just please don’t just walk away without a goodbye or what else undercover superheroes do when they find out their fuckbuddy is pregnant.” She said in a pathetic attempt to be funny.

James flinched at the word fuckbuddy and moved her head so that she had to look into his intensely blue eyes.

“Don’t call yourself a fuckbuddy. I may not be able to promise you a white picket fence or even fidelity but you are very dear to me Adelaide.” James said with a self-deprecating smile before kissing her softly on the mouth, “Paramour sounds so much more elegant.”

Adelaide snickered and pecked him on the cheek.

“I think I can live with the word lover.” Then she became serious once more, “Will you… do you want to be involved in raising this child?”

James stiffened and stayed silent for a long moment before he said reluctantly, “I can’t promise anything about being there but I will try… and of course you won’t be alone responsible for the expenses.”

Adelaide nodded, that was already more than she had expected from such a die-hard bachelor like James was.

 

_A (24) – James (36) gives her his real name – Bond but nothing else – Adelaide quickly becomes bigger – when J is in London he watches part fascinated, part terrified as their child grows – it is a difficult pregnancy and at the end of the 5 month she has to stop working because the kid makes her nauseous - her old boss takes over for some time_

 

Adelaide woke to warm hands gently stroking over her swollen belly and pressing against the tiny kicks the baby inside her made. Her lips twitched up while she stretched languidly, her eyes still closed. Apparently James had returned yesterday evening or early today. He always spent hours staring at her changed form whenever he returned, fascinated by what the baby did to her. He was also very appreciative of her swollen breasts and heightened sex drive whenever she wasn’t puking her guts out.

 

_it’s a girl – when she is born they call her Monique after James’ mother and she grows up multi lingual – she is 2 when (38) James becomes a double 00 and falls in love with Vesper – he is slightly guilty but determined to make things work with Vesper – he calls Adelaide and she promises him that nothing would change and that her was the father of her daughter and they would make all of this work – Casino Royale ends and Vesper is dead – James is destroyed – Monique helps but he is very distrustful and guarded – A and J sleep together again – she asks him if it would be okay to have another child once his torture injury is healed – apparently whatever was wrong before with her uterus is gone - James agrees and they ignore protection when James knows that he is clean – she is pregnant before Quantum of Solace happens –_

_Monique is 8 when Skyfall happens and her brother Tristan is 5 – they are both Crawfords for their protection and have both James (44) eyes but her curly black hair – when James vanishes and doesn’t call or gives her news she knows that Skyfall has begun – she continues to tailor things – nobody in MI6 knows about her, James has told nobody – then she receives a postcard with his script – she is so thankful – she puts the postcard up on the wall just like all the other postcards he has sent them over the years or taken with him -_

_James goes into Adelaide’s shop to get a new suit after he returns from London – she kisses him desperately and hugs him – their children are there – Monique is now old enough to understand that her father is a spy – she has been coached by her mother to never talk about her father other than that he and her mum were friends and her mum wanted kids – Tristan too doesn’t talk about their father other then vague things– they hug him tightly, they love him even when he isn’t there most of the time – he spends time with them whenever he is – teaching them self defense and languages – Adelaide makes him a new suit – then James takes M to Skyfall – he hates his childhood home – M dies and he wants to sell but decides against it – not when he has children of his own who could want it one day – he has someone take a look and start repairing it_

_Then she gets a visit of a black woman that introduces herself as Moneypenny and asks her to create an evening gown with the Crawford special._

 

“This establishment was recommended to me.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Adelaide laughed.

“Yes, his name is Charlton. James Charlton. He recommended me to ask after your special.”

Adelaide stilled for a moment and looked wide eyed at the woman in front of her before she slowly nodded.

“What were you thinking off Ms?”

“Moneypenny, Eve Moneypenny.” The woman said with a genteel smile.

“Ms. Moneypenny.”

“There is a black tie event I will have to attend.”

“Of course. May I show you the fabrics and colors?”

They decided for a deep yellow silk fabric and the style was classy elegant. The dress didn’t have much décolleté with it being a neck holder but it had a certain edge with a longer than normal slit on the side that showed off Ms. Moneypenny’s fabulous leg. It was a comfortable fit with enough breathing room that Ms. Moneypenny could run in the dress if needed. Between the lining and the outer fabric Adelaide added a lose corset of stripes of a fabric that worked similar to Kevlar - they were sewed in apart that would let the woman move in every direction with adding a certain amount of protection to the dress. Adelaide had been experimenting with that for a while now for her own clothes. If she was associating with a spy she better have an added layer of protection herself if she didn’t know how to use a gun or defend herself.

When Miss Moneypenny came back for the third fitting Adelaide had the woman stretch and move around to make sure that everything sat well and would not hinder her in her movements.

When she presented the agent with the bill after the final fitting she added the Kevlar like fabric and additional sewing under Crawford special. Ms. Moneypenny smiled at her and didn’t bat an eye lash when she paid with her card.

 

_In her free time she researches other alternatives to Kevlar – the fabric is too rigid and hard to work with – there is a nanotechnology people are working on to make better bulletproof vests but Adelaide has no access to that – 10 days after she google searched Kevlar and bulletproof vests a truck with a nude colored fabric arrives at her shop – on further examination she finds notes about how to treat the fabric before it became bullet proof – she doesn’t want to know. Really._

 

A few weeks later James surprised her when she came home and dragged her into his flat to ravish her. After a number of frantic orgasms Adelaide laid stretched out on his bed while she watched him make himself a drink.

“Was there a reason for that?” she asked amused and still breathless.

“Your little Crawford Special saved my life last week.”

Adelaide stilled and then abruptly set up to take in James body. There was a suspicious smatter of dark bruises on his chest area. Exactly where she had worked in the new fabric as additional protection. The brunette carefully let her hand glide over the impressive pec and looked up concernedly.

“Are you sure that you are alright?”

“I’m fine.” James said with a little smirk and then kissed her again, “Think you can add that to all of my new suits?”

Adelaide snorted, “I would have anyway. Oh and your friend? Miss Moneypenny, she asked after the Crawford special too.”

“Crawford Special, hmm?”

“Yup.” Adelaide said with a grin.

 

_James is 46 when Spectre begins – Adelaide has still not been found – she is pregnant again – and happy about it– Monique (10) and Tristan (7) are excited about the news – she has the baby while James fights for his survival against Spectre_

_James kills Franz Oberhauser and then a disease breaks out – Adelaide can’t believe her eyes when it turns out to be a zombie apocalypse – she hides with the kids in the panic room of their house that James had installed not long after the house was bought – a week after the initial disease hit London is a cemetery of walking zombies – the network broke down 2 days ago when Adelaide sees on the outside camera James coming into the house – he isn’t alone there is another blonde man with him_

 

She ran up the stairs as quickly as she could.

“James!!!” she sighed out in relief when she saw the father of her children standing in the entrance hall.

“Thank god.” Said man answered hoarsely and kissed her desperately, “The kids?”

“DAD!!!” Monique called, she had followed her up from the panic room.

James caught then 10-year-old in his arms while she sobbed, clearly finally losing it. Over their sobbing daughter’s shoulder James smiled at Adelaide and then gestured at the other blonde man that was staring incredulous at James and Monique.

“Addy, this is Alec. Alec this is the mother of my children, Adelaide Crawford.”

“Oh!” she said in recognition, “It’s so good to finally meet you. Though I thought you were in Russia in retirement.”

“I was… but James is here and the weather in London is better than in my home country.”

“Ah.” Adelaide said understanding but couldn’t finish her sentence because Tristan now too came running up the stairs.

“Dad.” He said with a big smile and joined Monique in her hug.

Adelaide smiled at her children and then winced when she moved too fast.

“Adelaide?” James asked immediately.

“Don’t mind me. I just shouldn’t be running around quite yet. I just gave birth four days ago.”

James stilled at that and he looked serious at her, “Four days… that’s…”

“We were already secured in the house when my contractions hit. Don’t worry it was an easy birth.” And then she smiled, “Want to meet your youngest daughter?”

James grinned like a school boy and kissed her gently on the mouth.

They made their way downstairs afterwards. The door to the converted panic apartment was ajar and they easily slipped inside the well furnished and stocked emergency room. Adelaide walked into her bedroom, James right behind her and a curious Alec only a few steps behind. Monique and Tristan had run ahead and were sitting beside the crib, looking at their youngest sibling.

James sucked in air and his smile became soft while he watched the small newborn.

“She is gorgeous.”

“True. We make stunning babies.” Adelaide agreed and gently kissed Tristan on the head.

“Any name in mind?”

“I thought we could name her Charmaine after your aunt and the next one after my family again.”

James nodded and stared down at his youngest child, “Charmaine Crawford Bond…” then he asked, “Another?”

“I’m 34 James, that’s not that old and yes I want maybe one or two more. We will see.”

James just hummed in agreement.

Behind them Alec snickered and then looked at James, “You know when you told me you wanted to pick up your family I didn’t expected a wife and three children.”

“Technically we aren’t married.” Adelaide interjected with a smirk.

“But only by a technicality.”

Addy snickered back and kissed him on the chin, “You said something about picking us up?”

“Yes. I want all four of you save in the HQ of MI6. You can’t get securer anywhere else right now, apparently the boffins have been planning and preparing for a zombie scenario for over 10 years now. There is also the medical attention should you need it.”

Adelaide hummed and then nodded decisively, “Okay. Then we will pack our things. How did you get here?”

“By foot actually, scouting the area. There are next to no Walkers around right now so we can risk using cars to the HQ.”

Monique snickered, “Walkers?”

“Some geek in TSS called them that, it stuck.”

“Someone was watching too much Walking Dead.” Adelaide murmured amused while she walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out to heavy traveling bags.

“You are well prepared.” Alec said with approval.

“James always insisted on emergency bags and safety drills every once in a while.” Adelaide admitted with a soft smile in James direction.

“Where is the car?”

“In the Garage, you only have to open the front gate and we can leave.” Adelaide answered while she quickly collected Charmaine’s things.

James quickly left to check on their escape vehicle.

“Kids?” Addy called into the other room.

“Nearly finished mum.” Monique called back from the other room, where she was helping Tristan to pack his bag.

Addy nodded and then turned to Alec, “What about the additional supplies, we have rations for at least 6 months here.”

“Leave them for now. James and I can return later and get them, right now it is more important to get you four out of here.”

 

“So how did you meet?”

“We were neighbors for about half a year when James started to come home with ripped bespoke suits. I’m a tailor and I couldn’t take the sight anymore and asked him what happened. Well long story short I landed in his bed and started to make suits for him that have a little bit more protection than normal ones.”

“She is the first address for 00 quality clothing in London.” James added when he returned from the garage.

 

Their arrival hadn’t stayed unnoticed for long. A group of four made their way over to them. Adelaide even recognized one of them. Eve Moneypenny was just as radiant in combat clothes as in her every day and evening wear.

“Bond! Where have you been during the last two days?” the youngest of them, a man with curly black hair and high cheek bones that could have been her brother asked annoyed.

James smiled enigmatic “Picking up my family.” He said innocently, “Hello Q. I trust you are well.”

“Family?” Moneypenny now asked amused before her eyes stopped at Alec, “… Trevelyan?”

“Hello there. You must be Eve Moneypenny, James has been most informative.” The former spy said amused at the woman that had shot down his best friend.

“You should be dead, 006. For over six years now.” The woman deadpanned.

“Bond?” the other man asked coolly at that.

“Hello to you too, M. Alec… retired. As you told me, staying dead is the better option sometimes.” James answered before he smirked at his boss.

“Right.” M said tightly and then turned to Adelaide, “And this is…”

“Adelaide Crawford.” Eve answered for him, “She is the tailor that makes armored clothing for our double 0s. Q here has been waxing poetic on how she hides his special fabric in evening wear.”

“Miss Crawford.” M acknowledged her, “And who…”

“These are Monique, Tristan and Charmaine. Our children.” Bond interrupted impatiently and slightly gleeful.

All four MI6 members froze at that and Q asked numbly, “Our children?”

“Yes, James and mine.” Adelaide simply confirmed, amused by her lover’s need to fuck with his colleagues.

Right at that moment Monique turned back to the adults and stared M right into the eyes. Adelaide had the feeling if that wasn’t the director of the MI6 the man would have flinched. Her daughter’s eyes were just as intense as James.

“… why did nobody know that you have a family, 007?” the fourth MI6 member asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I never saw the need to inform anyone and after the Treasury debacle there was no way I would put Addy and the kids in that kind of danger. You got out of Syria fine, 004?”

Said man’s lips twitched, “They were distracted trying to not get eaten to actually bother with an escaping spy.”

“Convenient.” Alec acknowledged.

“Very.” 004 agreed magnanimously and then turned his attention to the kids, “So two girls and a boy?”

“Monique is ten, Tristan seven and Charmaine here is only four days old.” James supplied with a shark grin.

Tristan used the introduction to snuggle up to James and partially hid behind him while he watched the other MI6 members with distrustful blue eyes. He was always more careful than his older sister.

“Four days old? You gave birth in this chaos? Without any medical attention?” Eve wanted to know wide eyed.

Adelaide allowed herself to smile and laugh lightly, “I already had two children before my youngest, Ms. Moneypenny. I knew what to do.”

“You should get checked out anyway.” James insisted from behind.

“He is right we have medical personnel here Ms., Mrs.…” the dark haired Quartermaster floundered slightly.

“Ms. Crawford. James and I aren’t married.” Adelaide answered with a smile.

“Ms. Crawford.” Q agreed, “If you would follow me? Your children should probably also get checked out.”

Adelaide nodded at that but turned to James who gave her a quick kiss on her pulse point and pushed Tristan in her direction. Charmaine was still sleeping in her carrier and Monique danced closer with all the grace of a ballerina.

XXXXXXXXXXX

M waited long enough until Adelaide and the kids were out of earshot when he rounded on James.

“You have a family and kids?” he hissed coldly, “What were you thinking 007? If anyone of your enemies found out about them we would have been in no position to protect them!”

“True. But like this no one could hack MI6 and pluck the information about them out of the servers.” James answered coolly.

“What does she know about MI6?” M continued as if he hadn’t heard Bond.

“Nothing. Well, she knows that I work for the government and that I send people in her direction now and then to get outfitted but that’s it. Adelaide is as civilian as you can get, more knowledge would have just put her in danger.”

“And children Bond? Really?”

007 smirked at that, “Well Monique was a bit of an accident but Addy wanted to keep her, so we did… and then she wanted another few.”

“Is your ‘wife’ aware of your indiscretions?” Eve asked curious.

“I wouldn’t call them indiscretions but yes, she is well aware. She knew even before Monique.” James ignored the wife comment, for all intents and purposes she WAS his wife.

“Christ.” M muttered while he gave into the urge to push his hand through his hair, “I hope you know what you are doing. There are more of your exes in MI6 than anywhere else.”

James just smirked and shrugged his shoulders. 


	15. Haruno Yuuka

_Haruno Yuuka (19), Haruno Sakura (12), Hatake Kakashi (26)_

_Haruno Yuuka is the illegitimate daughter of Haruno Kizashi that was born before he married Mebuki, came to live with them when Sakura was 2 because her mother died._

Yuuka hadn’t even touched the ground yet when a wailed “Onee-chan!!!” made her look to the side and gave her just enough warning to brace herself and catch the cannon ball that was her little sister.

Sakura was clinging to her hanfu, face buried in the silk and hands like a vice around Yuuka’s waist. She had grown a lot in the last two years.

“Imouto.” Yuuka breathed happily and gently ran her hands over Sakura’s still long hair.

In, a by now, traditional gesture Sakura grabbed one strand of Yuuka’s long pink hair and gently intertwined it with her own, their hair was the exact same shade. Yuuka couldn’t help but duck and plant a kiss on her cute baby sister’s cheek.

“Still the same color, hhm?” she teased Sakura with a wink.

Sakura pouted up at her, her beautiful green eyes glistening with unshed tears. Yuuka bit her lip and then gave into her need to squeeze her baby sister tightly. Out of the corner of her eye she vaguely registered that her coachman and two man with the same company logo were unloading her luggage onto the ground.

“I missed you, brat.” Yuuka laughed gently while running her fingers through Sakura’s long hair.

“I missed you too.” Sakura answered with a sigh and then her eyes wandered admiring to her hair, “It got even longer.”

Yuuka snorted and hummed, “Yes but those few additional centimeters are a lot more work than I anticipated. I’m really tempted to just cut it now that I’m not at court anymore.”

“What? NO!!! Don’t you dare, nee-chan!!!” Sakura protested loudly.

Behind them a polite cough interrupted their conversation. The Harunos blinked and turned around and Yuuka got her first glance on Sakura’s team.

“Oh… ugh, sorry sensei.” Sakura said a bit sheepishly, “Nee-chan. These are Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun and Naruto. They are my team. Guys, this is Haruno Yuuka, my big sister.”

Yuuka released Sakura and politely bowed at Kakashi, “Hatake-dono, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

The silver haired Jounin sheepishly returned her greeting with a significantly swallower bow, which was within his rights as distinguished Jounin with certain political clout.

“Why do you know Kakashi-sensei’s name?” Naruto asked in an obnoxious voice from beside them.

Yuuka felt her eyebrow raise at that lack of manners. For somebody who had been living at court for nearly a decade it was like a slap in the face.

“Neechan?” Sakura too, asked confused.

Now Yuuka couldn’t help but sigh, “Baby sister, even if I hadn’t started paying attention to ninja politics after you expressed your interest in becoming one I would have known who your sensei is.”

All three twelve year olds stared at her in confusion, Yuuka felt a headache coming. She turned her attention to Hatake who stared placidly and did she dare say amused back at her.

“Who was responsible for your political education in the Academy?” Yuuka couldn’t help but ask disturbed.

“Uhh, Mana-sensei? But what does this have anything to do with Kakashi-sensei?”

Yuuka stared first at Sakura and then at Kakashi before she sighed out loud, “Right I’m not doing this here. I take it otou-san is on a mission?”

Sakura hummed in agreement, “And mum is with great-aunt Etsuko, she is sorry for not coming to greet you but they don’t think Etsuko-baa-san will survive the week.”

Yuuka winced in sympathy, Agisa Etsuko was a bitter old woman on good days, she didn’t envy Mebuki the task of taking care of the old woman until she finally croaked. Mebuki and her didn’t always get along or saw eye to eye but both had agreed to keep Sakura away from the abusive old witch as much as possible.

“That’s fine, I will just drop by for tea and catch up with your mother later.” She said with a smile then it turned into a smirk, “So are you just here to greet me or do you have time for some slave work?”

Sakura smirked back at her and tilted her head, “Depends on where we have to carry it and what kind of incentive you can offer.”

Yuuka theatrically sighed, “My little sister the extortionist. I’m so proud. Does dinner at Honoka’s sound good?”

Honoka was one of the more expensive restaurants in Konoha and was visited frequently by both shinobi and civilians. Kizashi had made it tradition to take them there in celebration of special events.

And then she turned her attention back to Kakashi, now daring to use the slightly more informal address as her younger sister’s teacher, “If that’s alright with you Hatake-sensei.”

Said man just nodded, clearly amused by their banter, “Kakashi is fine, Haruno-san.”

“Than please call my Yuuka.” Yuuka replied with a warm, but still somewhat formal smile.

“Really? Can you afford that?” Sakura interrupted them with some doubt in her voice.

“Rude, sister mine.” Yuuka admonished half-heartedly, “And yes I can, Kirishima-sama was most generous in his payment.”

“How was court life? You never tell me anything in your letters.”

“Because they get screened sister dearest, I’m not risking our family’s reputation because you want to know some of the gossip.” Yuuka explained dryly, “The Daimyo doesn’t mess around concerning that.”

All three 12 year olds stared at her wide eyed, while Kakashi just nodded his head, clearly already aware of that.

By now they had arrived at the back of the carriage, where her coachman and his helpers had unloaded her luggage and were patiently waiting for her to release them.

Yuuka smiled and handed them a tip. The journey itself had already been paid for in the capital by Kirishima-sama who had been a most gracious patron.

“That’s a lot of stuff nee-chan.” Sakura said grinning.

“Court wear does take up a lot of space, as do my painting supplies… if you play your cards right I may be willing to let you try some of the robes when you have some more height.”

“Awesome.” Sakura breathed happily.

Then Yuuka bit her lip while she took in the pile of chests and sighed, “I’m going to need additional help aren’t I?”

Beside her Kakashi stretched his arms above his head and said, “I don’t think so, Yuuka-san.”

He then distributed the biggest chests between the Genin and then sealed the rest of the luggage in deceptively small scroll that he tugged into his pocket. His Genin stared mutinous, but resigned at him. Yuuka hid her snicker demurely behind her hand and indicated a quick bow in Kakashi’s direction as thanks. Said man just eye-smiled back and shooed his students into a trot.

“Where are we going? You said you already bought a house in your last letter.”

“Hhhm, the house is in Jinbocho, and I wouldn’t say bought, acquired is more correct.” Yuuka said blandly.

Sakura suddenly stared at her dryly, “Acquired. Sister, have you been gambling again?”

Beside them Naruto and Sasuke choked while Kakashi actually snickered out loud.

“No, not this time but now that you have brought it up. Sakura, dearest imouto, you wouldn’t happen to know when Konoha’s annual poker matches start? I haven’t been able to get my hands on that information yet.”

“No.” Sakura answered back calmly.

Yuuka grinned at her, “I think you are omitting.”

“Could be.” Sakura answered bone dry.

“Aw, that hurts, deep down in my black soul. Sakura-chan, don’t you love me?!?” Yuuka sighed theatrically with fake tears in her eyes.

“Not when you try your damnest to emulate our father. From all his habits, why did you have to pick up the worst?” her sister countered unmoved.

Yuuka just grinned unrepentantly.

“You gamble, Neechan?” Naruto asked curious.

Yuuka smile became wider, “I make high-risk decisions based on facts. By the way, I resent the comparison to our father, Sakura-chan. With him it’s a fifty-fifty chance if he loses or wins, I’m much better.”

“Mum doesn’t like it.”

“Mebuki-san is a smart woman that knows her husband well enough to put a stop on the amount he risks. Notice how she doesn’t do that with me anymore?”

Sakura just grumbled.

“Why are you calling your kaa-chan, Mebuki-san?” Naruto asked curious.

Yuuka looked over and smiled at the blonde boy, “Mebuki-san is Sakura’s mother, not mine. Sakura and I are half-siblings.”

Sakura smile dimmed and she reached for Yuuka’s hand, Yuuka ever obliging intertwined their fingers and gently squeezed to reassure her sister.

“Oh. I’m sorry…” Naruto said, suddenly unsure what to say.

“No harm done Naruto-kun.” Yuuka laughed.

“Is that why you lived in the capital until now?” Sasuke asked bluntly.

“What? NO!” Sakura said appalled while Yuuka just laughed.

“No, Sasuke-kun. At 12 I was accepted into the _Musashino Bijutsu Daigaku_ an Academy for the fine arts.”

“Don’t listen to her, MBD is not just some school it’s THE Academy for Fine Arts in the Elemental Countries and it is really hard to get in. Nee-chan was one of only 50 that are accepted each year.” Sakura interrupted proudly.

“That’s awesome. So you are what, a painter?” Naruto asked with a grin.

“Yes, I specialize in paintings but I’m also trained in other arts, like conversation, dancing, playing instruments and singing.” Yuuka said with an indulgent smile.

“That’s so cool!” he exclaimed and then nearly dropped the chest he was carrying.

“Naruto, try to concentrate on walking.” Kakashi said with a sigh.

Yuuka just smiled and took out the address of the house that she had won in a wager against the Daimyo’s cousin. The asshole had tried to humiliate her in front of the whole court because she had not accepted his advances. Only some fast talking and a high risk bet which she had thankfully won had prevented Yuuka and with her, her patron Kirishima-sama from losing face.

The Fire Daimyo and his wife loved games and riddles so Yuuka had manipulated … into accepting a challenge of answering a series of riddles each. As collateral they had each set a deed of property. In Yuuka’s case the house she had bought after her first big commission which she had doubled through gambling in the underground casinos of the capital. It was a nice sized property but more importantly it was right in the middle of the most popular district of the capital. The prices for the properties there had risen dramatically in the last few years and Yuuka had wanted to either sell it or rent it out to finance her return to Konoha, though the renting had seemed more profitable.

Anyway, while it would hurt financially to lose the house it wasn’t too bad a prize for keeping her reputation intact. It became an even sweeter deal when she realized that the idiot was betting a property in Konoha. Yuuka just knew that if she won that bet she would hit two birds with one stone. Not only would she continue to receive income from the house in the capital but she would also have a nice place to stay in Konoha, because you could say what you wanted about the pretentious git but his property manager had a very good reputation.

She won in the end.

The idiot had forgotten one important fact; he may have grown up close to the Daimyo but his livelihood didn’t depend on being able to make new riddles or answer them. Yuuka’s did to a certain degree.

XXXXXXXXXX

“Omiai? Omiai?” Sakura asked appalled, “But nee-chan! You really want to marry?”

At this Yuuka laughed and shook her head, “God, no Sakura-chan. But… look I have spent half of my life at court and in the Capital, so they are still keeping an eye on me and there are certain things that are expected from me. Including marriage and to let myself be supported by a husband.”

“But that’s bullshit!” Naruto said wide eyed, “And why, you make a lot of money with selling your paintings.”

“It is Naruto-kun and I do, but you have to remember that women at court have three functions, those that are pretty to look at and entertain, those that become wives and produce the next generation, and those who are there to take pleasure in. And I took care of my reputation and categorically refused to be pushed into the third part so now that I am at an ‘marriageable’ age it is expected that I at least look at the options around me. It is also to prevent the Daimyo from thinking he is ‘helping’ me and arranging a match.”

“He can do that?”

“Legally? No. But Sakura if the Daimyo suggests that you marry a specific person you have to be aware that if you reject the offer it will have seriously political consequences for you if you don’t have a valid reason. After all the Daimyo would lose face.”

“Oh my god, could this happen to me? As your sister I mean?”

“No, Sakura-chan. You graduated from the Academy and are subject primarily to the Hokage. The Fire Daimyo and the Hokage have an agreement that the Daimyo will not interfere with the private life of a shinobi. There are some exceptions but nothing that pertains you.”

“Oh. Good.” Sakura said relieved.

Yuuka grinned, “And that’s also why I have to date a shinobi or two in a few years. If there is even the slightest possibility that I date and intend to marry a shinobi all of the Daimyo’s suggestions pretty much fall through.”

“We will help, right teme!” Naruto piped up, eyes gleaming determined.

Yuuka couldn’t help but tease him, “Why Naruto-kun, how daring. Are you suggesting that I go out with you or Sasuke-kun in a few years? I’m nearly a decade older than you…”

“Huh?” Naruto asked first confused and then turned beet-red.

“Dobe.” The Uchiha grunted, his cheeks were also slightly pink.

“Mah boys, maybe wait until you have reached the same height as Yuuka-san before propositioning her again.” Kakashi chuckled while he put his arms around his male students.

Naruto and Sasuke looked appropriately mortified.

“That’s not what I meant!” Naruto said panicked, “I meant Iruka-sensei!”

“Iruka-sensei?” Sakura repeated thoughtfully and then hummed in agreement, Sasuke too nodded.

“I see how it is. You three are going to meddle. Alright, but let’s wait with that, at least for a year then you can try to set me up with your former Academy teacher.” Yuuka said somewhat bemused.

Beside her Kakashi looked a bit too amused by the whole situation, Yuuka looked at him considering, were they already familiar enough for an elbow between the ribs?

“We can make that into an unofficial mission if you three want.”

Yeah, they were, Yuuka decided and rammed her pointy elbow into Kakashi’s side when she passed him. The shinobi just chuckled, he didn’t even have the decency to pretend that it hurt.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Yuuka read the letter, closed her eyes and read it again.

“Fuck.” Her deadpan exclamation brought Sakura running.

“Neechan?”

Wordlessly she handed the writing of the Daimyo over.

“That… but you have been going out with a few shinobi, publically!” Sakura said while she started to become paler and paler.

“Yes but those were all about Chunin Level. The man the Daimyo is proposing is nearly equal in wealth to the Daimyo himself… fuck.”

“You need a date with a Jounin.”

“No, Sakura, at this point I need a marriage to a Jounin to prevent this.” Yuuka breathed out, still numb from the realization.

Sakura bit her lip, clearly distressed, “How can I…”

“No.” Yuuka said vehemently before she gentled her tone, “No, Sakura-chan. I won’t pull you into my mess.” She walked over to her little sister and drew her into a tight hug, “I will deal with this myself, imouto but thank you for trying to help me.”

She gave Sakura a last kiss on the forehead before she distractedly made her way into her drawing room. She didn’t even notice as Sakura left for training.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

“Sakura, is something wrong? You have been exceedingly distracted today.” Kakashi-sensei finally asked after the third time he had to intervene when she was distracted and had seen the projectile weapons coming at her.

Sakura bit her lip and looked at the ground, Kakashi waited a moment only to back away horrified when Sakura began to quietly sob.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto shouted concerned and came running, followed by a slightly slower Sasuke who stared at Sakura as if she was an exploding tag that would go off at any moment.

“Nee-chan got a letter from the Daimyo, she will have to marry.” Sakura pressed out between sobs.

“B-but, she already went out with several shinobi.” Naruto said in denial.

“Yeah but apparently the match the Daimyo is proposing is exceedingly good, she said that she would have to be engaged and have an impending wedding to a Jounin to escape this.”

“Sakura…” Kakashi-sensei said quietly, hovering in front of her, unsure what to do, “Do you know the name of the man she would have to marry? Maybe it isn’t too bad.”

“Akatsuchi Hirohito.” Sakura said between hiccups.

In front of her Kakashi-sensei closed his eyes, he didn’t tense he was too good for that but hell, that was probably the worst match Yuuka-san could have. Akatsuchi was 40 years her senior, fat, bald and had had 5 wives already, all had died either in unfortunate accidents or in childbirth. He had no sons only two infant daughters as heirs and by now no self-respecting noble family would agree to marry one of their daughters to him.

That evening Kakashi sat on his bed while his mind circled again and again to the letter Yuuka-san had received today, the letter that would trap her in an unhappy marriage and probably kill her, but if she refused the match it would not only put her in danger but also the rest of her family, the Daimyo could be rather vindictive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Yuuka-san.” Kakashi greeted her.

“Kakashi-san.” Yuuka answered, her smile slightly more strained then normally but no less polite, “Come in, please. How can I help you?”

“Sakura told us yesterday.”

“Ah.” Yuuka said with a nod, not meeting his eye, “Yes, well. I tried to prevent this but apparently, my efforts weren’t good enough…”

Kakashi considered fleeing for a second before he called himself a coward. The woman in front of him would go into a fate worse than death with her head held high, she deserved better and Kakashi had the means to help her.

“You know… there is a way to get out of it.” He said nonchalantly.

Yuuka whirled around and glared at him, “Kakashi-san, I am well aware that I would have to marry a shinobi of Jounin-rank. And while I am acquainted with a few they are either married, eternal bachelors or in a relationship. And I’m not going to beg anyone to marry me.”

Kakashi nearly winced, right he should have started differently, Haruno Yuuka was after all not a shrinking flower, she had her pride.

So he sighed and shifted his weight slightly, “That’s not what I meant. Yuuka…” and yes the drop of the suffix clearly provoked a reaction because the older Haruno sister whirled around and stared at him wide eyed for actually daring to break civilian conventions like this.

“Yuuka, would it really be so bad to marry a shinobi? To marry me?” there he said it.

In front of him the artist stilled and stared at him for a long moment before she whispered hoarsely, “You would… for me? So that I could stay?”

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, “The council has been hounding me for a decade to take a wife. I don’t think that I have to tell you that if we marry we would be expected to have at least one child for the Hatake clan.”

Yuuka nodded at that and god, she was blushing.

“Come on, write your refusal and I will co-sign it. Afterwards we can go to the Hokage and discuss the details and what kind of protection is available for you.” Kakashi prodded.

“Protection?” Yuuka asked curiously before she nodded, of course Kakashi wasn’t just any Jounin, “Would the Hokage really agree to protection for me?”

Kakashi snorted, “If not the Hokage then the council, I’m the last of my clan after all.”

XXXXXXXX

“Kiss me?”

Kakashi looked at her curious before he pulled down his mask, gave her next to no time to take in his face and caught her lips with his. They were warm and slightly chapped from the mask that had hidden them. Yuuka sighed and let her eyes close while Kakashi playfully increased the pressure and then started to nibble on her lower lip. It felt good, warm and then his arms came around her and hauled her closer until she was pressed up against him completely. The Chunin vest prevented Yuuka from feeling anything of his upper body, but that didn’t stop her taking in the warmth that seeped into her skin through his thighs and then arms that had wrapped around her hips.

When his lips finally let hers go again Yuuka’s hand travelled up to his cheeks. Kakashi had a clean shaved face, no visual scars other than the one that went through his eye and a mole on his left cheek. Yuuka couldn’t resist to poke it and smiled dryly up at him.

“Once Sakura and the boys find out about us marrying they won’t leave me in peace about your face.”

“Mah.” Kakashi said amused, “Then I will have to give you incentives so that you won’t reveal my secret.”

“Incentives, huh?” Yuuka asked dryly.

“Incentives.” Kakashi agreed solemnly.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Asuma stared at Kakashi wide eyed, “Repeat that, please.”

“I’m getting married.”

“To Yuuka-san?”

“Yup.”

“Pull the other one, I’m not buying it. You two are acquaintances, friends at best.”

“Still going to marry her.”

“Kakashi.”

“She got a letter from the Daimyo, her other choice would have been Akatsuchi.”

“…fuck.”

“My words exactly.”

“But you DO know what this means don’t you?”

Kakashi sighed, “Yeah. Apparently, I am reviving the Hatake clan after all.”

“Well… congratulations? You could have chosen a worse woman… actually you could have really chosen a hell lot worse than her. Yuuka-san is smart, talented and beautiful.”

Kakashi hummed in agreement.

“You know what, this sounds more and more like you lucked out.” Asuma grumbled.

“Jealous?” Kakashi asked smugly.

Asuma sent him a glare.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Isn’t that some form of nepotism? Isn’t her younger sister his Genin?” a Chunin asked curious.

“Maybe in a skewered sense but he met her THROUGH his Genin and not took the girl on because he is sweet on her sister.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

“Hatake is lucky. She is really gorgeous.”

“Oh, you have seen her?”

“Yeah. She has knee length pink hair and beautiful blue eyes. And she is totally refined, she lived in the Capital for the last seven years, worked at the court of the Daimyo.”

“Oh? Wait worked? Is she a…”

“Nope, she went to MBD Academy if you can believe it. Apparently she is an excellent painter and a great entertainer.”

“You know you might be right, Hatake lucked out…”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

“My little girl is getting married.” Kizashi burst out into tears.

Sakura and Yuuka stared at each other in deadpan and Mebuki patted her husband consolingly on the shoulder.

“There, there dear. Yuuka will be twenty soon, she is hardly a little girl.”

Sakura snorted and just sighed before she grinned up at Yuuka, “Neechan?”

“Yes?” Yuuka asked bemused while she gently righted her wedding kimono.

“Now that you are marrying Kakashi-sensei you will know what is under that mask.”

Yuuka turned to her younger sister and smirked at her amused, “Imouto, I hate to tell you this but I have known what is under Kakashi’s mask for weeks already.”

“WHAT?” Sakura asked indignant, “And you haven’t TOLD me?”

Yuuka’s grin just increased and she shrugged her shoulders, “Both Kakashi and I think it’s cute how you try to look under his mask.”

Sakura pouted. Full on pouted and sniffed theatrically when it clearly didn’t work.

Yuuka just grinned and pressed a quick kiss on her sister’s forehead while her lips were still unpainted.

“Are you going to wear the white paint, Yuuka-san?” Mebuki asked tentatively.

Yuuka shook her head at that, “No, Kakashi hates it and I’m not really partial to the stuff myself. I’m just going to enhance my eyes with kohl and use a dark red lipstainer.”

“Not paint?” Sakura asked curious.

Yuuka sent a glance at a still distracted Kizashi and said dryly, “Trust me Sakura-chan, if you want to kiss your significant other on your wedding day without everyone knowing what you just did you will also use the lipstainer.”

At that Sakura blushed and fidgeted slightly before she asked tentatively, “So you and Kakashi-sensei love each other?”

“My, my are you bold today, sweet sister.” Yuuka said teasingly before she shrugged her shoulders, “I respect Kakashi, and he respects me enough that he agreed to marry me to get me out of Akatsuchi’s clutches. We have also a healthy dose of attraction between us… and love… well we will see…”

XXXXXXXXXX

“Ah Yuuka-san or should I say Hatake-san, now?” Kirishima-sama said with a fond smile, “I hope you have received my wedding gift on time.”

“Good day Kirishima-sama, Yuuka is fine my lord. Your servants arrived in a timely fashion and may I thank you once more? The tea set is exquisite. I hope you and the family are well?”

“Yes, my dear. Will you be sitting with us?” he asked and pointed at the assortment of court officials and influential men present.

“I fear that there is another engagement that I cannot miss, Kirishima-sama. Lady Yamanaka is expecting my presence.”

“Of course, my dear.” Kirishima-sama said with a benevolent smile and with a last goodbye in the direction of the other nobles Yuuka made her way further down to Yamanaka Rangiku, Ino’s mother. The woman was from a civilian noble clan that lived close to Konoha. According to rumors Inoichi had been engaged to eldest daughter of that family but once he had gotten to know the rebellious youngest daughter of the then clan head he had arranged a better match for his then fiancée so that he could marry Nori Rangiku.

Yamanaka Rangiku was very put together, she wore hear chestnut brown hair in a bun on top of her head and a dark green, long sleeved dress with a brooch at the hollow of her neck. A clear sign of her station and birth family, the minor clans around Konoha tended to prefer these kinds of dresses above anything else.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yuuka was just about to start with a new painting when an ANBU dropped down in the far corner of the property.

“Kakashi-san isn’t here…” she began absently.

“Hatake-san, there has been an attack today.”

Yuuka let her painting utensils fall to the small side table and she stood, suddenly tense.

“Your husband is in the hospital.”

“But he is alright!?” Yuuka pleaded agitated.

“He… why don’t let me take you to the hospital?” the ANBU evaded her question.

Yuuka practically fled into the house, packing together a small bag and removing the painting apron before she returned to the waiting ANBU.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kakashi looked up from where he stood with several foreign shinobi, Yuuka was nearly 80% sure that they were discussing something important. But no matter, her husband waved her closer and once she was in reaching distance he put an arm around her waist and drew her closer.

“This is my wife Hatake Yuuka. Yu-chan, these are Darui, Mabui and A, the Raikage from Lightning.”

Yuuka smiled politely and bowed in greeting, “Welcome to Konoha.”

The eldest of the three, the Raikage squinted at her, “She looks a lot like that student of yours.”

Yuuka let her eyebrow wander up and she said dryly, “My little sister precedes me once again I see.”

“Ah.” The only other woman said with a nod, “Civilian, I take.” She kept her voice carefully neutral but Yuuka got the feeling that she disapproved of Kakashi’s choice in wife.

“Completely.” Yuuka answered without a hint of shame, as if she cared what the lightning kunoichi thought.

“Tou-chan!” Ryuichi cried in that moment behind them, “You are back!”

Kakashi turned around and caught their son in his arms with a chuckle, “Were you good for kaa-san?”

“Uhhm… yes?”

“Is that a question or an answer?” Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“He drove me up the wall, not unlike his father.” Yuuka commented with a sly grin.

“It was really boring while you weren’t there, I kept up with practice but without you or aunt Sakura to spar it was really boring and I have been getting antsy… that’s why kaa-chan has been teaching me calligraphy and court short hand.” He said with a bright grin, “It’s more interesting than I thought. She promised to start me on palace codes in a few days.”

Kakashi looked over at her in askance.

“He has been bouncing of the walls for days, too much energy and I’m ill equipped to tire him out physically. So I kept his mind occupied.”

“Court short hand and codes?”

“He already has the eye-hand coordination for the calligraphy, the rest is practice so I thought that we could something more interesting than dry theory.”

“Uh oh, nee-chan what have you been teaching my nephew?” an amused voice from their left asked.

“Sakura-baa-chan!” Ryuichi exclaimed happily and jumped over.

Sakura caught him just as easily, “Hello Ryu-chan, up for a spar tonight?”

“YES!!!” he exclaimed happily.

“Good, then go play for now, track me down in four hours.”

Ryu-chan scrambled off with another quick hug to Kakashi’s legs and a hastily called goodbye.

Once he was out of sight Sakura finally came around to give Yuuka a hug, “Hey big sis, so court short hand?”

Yuuka huffed, “You two can teach him how to clobber somebody physically to death, I’m going to teach him how to do it politically. Now where is the rest of the hotheads?”

“Hey, who are you calling hotheads nee-chan?” Naruto pouted from a few meters away.

“Oh not you, Naru-chan. You are my special little fruit cake, don’t you remember?”

Sakura snorted and grinned at her, she was nearly of the same height as Yuuka now, “I missed you neechan.”


	16. Q as prince, James Bond

Q looked up from his banter with 007 when M and a group of black suited men came through the glass doors into Q-branch.

Q stiffened, because he recognized at least one of these men.

“What is going?” he asked coolly, eyeing the men with growing dread.

“I am sorry Q, but you are hereby released of all obligations to MI6.” M said apologetic.

Q spluttered, caught between outrage and growing horror.

“What? M! On what grounds?” 007 protested right beside him, followed by various Q-branch minions who looked horrified at the mere motion.

“Your highness, please come with us.” the gentleman beside M said gently.

All sounds seemed to fade away while Q stumbled against the desk behind him.

“I’m not… I am 23rd in line of succession! And I have two older siblings!” he tried to deny desperately.

“This morning assassinations all over the country took place… there are 19th confirmed deaths with both your siblings still missing. As of right now you are the heir to the throne, Prince Caelum.”

Q choked, knees suddenly weak. “What about my younger siblings?”

“They are being extracted from campus right now. If you would follow us?”

“No, bring them here,” Q said, making an executive decision to not trust that easily.

“What?”

“You said that these assassinations happened at roughly the same time, which means those people put some thought into it and most likely also know the bolt holes the royal family has prepared for these kinds of attacks. Bring my siblings here, I am not risking their safety until I went over all pertaining data. M, I know that I have just been of my station as Quartermaster but I would like to continue to use MI6 resources until this has been solved and my siblings found. I am not prepared to ascend to the throne.”

“Of course, your highness,” M said with a smirk.


End file.
